What is the result of your thinking?

I found it interesting to see how the editors of The NIV Stewardship Study Bible described love:

…is not a feeling…so not let their emotions control them
…is an act of the will
…to act on behalf of our neighbor's good
…is unconditional…given regardless of the response of the recipient
…is sacrificial
…is the result of hard moral thinking

They quote John H. Westerhoff in his church's aim "to share an authentic love that draws humanity and God together."

(page 425)

Which is it?

In reading Carolyn Moor's encouragement for the new year, through her work at Modern Widows Club, I was encouraged that more need to hear this than widows:

"To be brave and open to being loved in this world, we must first become love itself. It is the difference between saying 'I want to be loved' vs. 'I want to be love'."  (http://modernwidowsclub.com)

Be encouraged to be love yourself.  First give love.  Love finds love.  

Different Versions, Different Readings, Same Meaning

Reading Romans 12:9 in different versions:

KJV:  Let love be without dissimulation.

NKJV:  Let love be without hypocrisy.

NLT:  Don't just pretend to love…

ESV:  Let love be genuine.

They all tell a story.  They all paint a canvas.  The question is:  can we do any of it?

Giving a timeless gift

"The most timeless gifts are peace and love."
~Alexander Breskin

Loving from your brokenness, not your greatness

I loved the title of the book, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, so I picked up the book.  I identified with the title.  Maybe other people don't…they are 'normal.'  But, I was surprised to even learn something about love:

"We think of people having the capacity to love who have mostly gotten life right - healthy people with high self-esteem and low regret factors.  Normal people.
There is no such thing, dear.  Jesus says the great lovers are those who have come face-to-face with their own great brokenness and have been undone by great grace."  (page 211, John Ortberg)

Be undone by great grace today to be enabled to love more fully.

How Much is Enough?

This is what a son said at his father's memorial service:

"Immortality has nothing to do with how long you live, but in how much love you give." 
~Cory Booker~

Well said.  Can we measure love?  I think not, but we can so fill the other person with it, that they will feel loved.  That is our task.

The Worst Thing

John Ortberg reminds us it is not just moral failures that decry us, but our lack of love.  He concludes that "the greatest crimes against the kingdom of God are crimes against love."
(Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them, p. 127, 128)

It's a good reminder that the greatest harm we do to others and ourselves is to withhold love.