Finding More Love in Your Life
After observing the riots in the Middle East and seeing the
anger of Muslims over a cartoon of Muhammed, it prompted me to
write this article.
Having seen all of that hate expressed over this cartoon also
reminded me that hatred is never the path to true peace and
happiness.
Since religion is supposed to make us better people, I have to
ask the Muslim world, how can all of that hatred make me a
better person?
As a Christian, the very linch pin of my faith is the idea of
love. I'm not talking about the kind of love you see in the
movies. That's lust.
I'm talking about the kind of love that changes the world and
makes it a better place to live. The kind of love that heals,
that makes us want to be better human beings. The kind of love
that would make the Good Samaritan want to stop on the side of
the road and help a man he didn't know simply because the man
was in need.
The Bible teaches us that God is love (1 John 4:118). Jesus said
that the greatest commandments were to love God, and then love
our neighbor AS ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). This means that a
crucial part of loving others involves loving ourselves so that
we can love others.
However, he never explained what real love was in this passage.
What is real love?
1 Corinthians 13 gives us an explanation. In verses four through
eight, it explains what real love is: patient and kind, without
envy, arrogance or rudeness, and it seeks the truth.
These values are old fashioned. We live in a society where
people do evil things and then claim they made a mistake. That
they shouldn't suffer the consequences because what they did was
a joke, they weren't in their right minds, or any other myriad
of excuses.
We live in a world where a cartoon causes more anger, and a
deeper call for justice, than the deaths of millions over
religious fervor.
Yet, what, as Christians, can we do? So why is it so hard for us
to love? Why should we love our enemies? Why should we love
people who may, at the very core of their existence, be evil?
The lack of the ability to love comes from being hurt. From
holding onto our hurts and our pain. To carrying around the
burden of our sin. There are many other reasons, but these are
the most obvious and basic.
The path to learning to love others comes from learning to be
whole. To heal. To find freedom from our sin. To let go of the
pain, grudges, and hurts of the past. By letting go of these
things, we become free. This is the kind of freedom Jesus
offered us, a kind of freedom that isn't available in any other
religion.
Although other religions are bound by rulese, Christianity
really isn't. The enduring concept of Christianity is grace.
Grace is an undeserved gift, the love and favor of God. If he
can love us even when we dont deserved to be loved, how can we
not love others?
I believe that only free people can truly love. Although there
are many reasons that I chose to become a Christian, one of the
main reasons was that Christianity offered a freedom, and a
peace, that no other religion offered. With that freedom and
peace comes a price though: it puts us in conflict with the
world and the values of the world.
Another reason that it is hard for us to love others we don't
want to love is that it requires sacrifice. Sacrifice is an
alien concept in our society today because it means putting the
needs of others ahead of our own. It means paying a high price
because we aren't gratifying our own ego.
We also requires us to give up our preconceived notions and
judgements of others. It requires that we care for those who may
have unjustly wronged us because of their own selfish motives.
What we don't often understand is that loving others isn't about
who they are; it's about who we are.
I believe that love is the most powerful force in the universe.
I believe that love has the power to change the world that we
live in. Love is the solution to the problems of the world.
Love is what gives us the capacity to truly change the world and
make it a better place to live in. I'm sure that this sounds
simplistic, but it's the only force powerful enough to cure what
truly ails us as human beings.
You may say, "but I'm only one person". It doesn't matter. It
only takes one person to make the world a better place. Apply
the principle of love in your life, and you will watch your
whole life change, your whole world change. This is how true
change begins, at an individual level.
Maybe you're saying, "but what will others think of me?" When
you truly love others, it really doesn't matter what they think.
The question now becomes, "how can I love others more"? Again,
it's the path to freedom.
If you haven't gotten everything out of your faith in Christ you
thought you'd receive when you became a Christian, maybe it's
time for a change. Christianity isn't a religion anyway; it's a
way of life. It calls us to a different standard than that of
the world, a standard that would make the world a better place
if we only lived by it.
If your life isn't all it should be today, try applying more
love to it. After all, love is the only true path to lasting
peace and happiness.
If you want more success in business, in your relationships, and
in your life, try applying love to the situation. As you change,
your world will change forever. For the better.
In the words of Newsong, "Love is the only solution". So let's
start a "Love Revolution".