Seven Lessons I Have Learned: Lesson #6 – Love is a decision. Choose to love.
It is better, happier, more enjoyable, to live our lives loving, rather than hating.
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Love is a decision. Some years ago, I embraced it. We have it posted on our bathroom mirror, to remind us every morning to decide to love. Love is not just affection, or romance. It is not just a feeling, beyond our control.
God “should” hate us sinners, but He chooses to love us instead. God commands us to love. And we really can love on command.
We all love people who are hard to love. Me, for example. How many of you love me? I, objectively, am not that easy to love. I know this. But many of you love me anyway. If you can love me, you can love almost anyone.
It is better, happier, more enjoyable, to live our lives loving, rather than hating.
Love is not judging. We do not judge those we love.
Love is not sitting around, idly thinking: “I love them.” It means helping them when they need help. Giving our time, money, and effort for them, perhaps self-sacrificingly if that is necessary. It’s not easy. We all do it for our families. Loving others is not that easy. You have to get involved with them, always a messy business. But that’s what you do when you love.
Those to whom we show love may or may not return it. They may even reject us, or hate us. It doesn’t matter. Love them anyway.
Don’t be afraid that love is wasted on unbelievers and sinners. It isn’t. Love is not finite, as if there were only so much of it, and not enough to go around. Love is never wasted. Many unbelievers in the world around us put us to shame by the love they share, and we all benefit in many ways. We can’t fix this sinful world, but we can show love to others in it. On the other hand, our resources of money, time, and energy are not infinite, so there are limits to what we can do to show our love.
This “love” thing is a big subject. The goal of having self-sacrificing agape love for everyone is asking a lot. More than most of us may be capable of. There is no one within my experience who does that, though a few seem to come close. But we could make a start by deciding not to hate, not to reject, not to judge. Leave the judging to God. We can at least do that much, and be happier for it.
Our late brother, John MacDougall,
Portage Ecclesia, IN,
2021