Learning To Love

Okay, so I missed getting a blog out by Valentines Day. But since February is considered The Month of Love, I figure I can still slip in a word or two at the last moment . . . and I mean the last moment!

The Lord asked a man I once knew, “Did you learn to love?” My guess is that he did, because some years later he went on to be with the Lord on Valentines Day.[i] A coincidence? Hardly.

It’s none of my business what the Lord asks someone else, but this question hit me hard. Obviously, my life’s story isn’t over yet, but have I learned to love?

Let’s just say, I’m a student.

This learning to love business can be most difficult, especially in light of the wounds that have befallen mankind in the name of love. We’ve all had hurts and pains—more than our share of them. Their whisperings in our hearts warn us to be more careful next time. Guard your heart. Perhaps be a little less generous with the dispensing of your love.

In this broken world, tides of human love shift too often. At high tide, love is easy. It flows lavishly and unselfishly onto others. Faults are readily overlooked as long as love is properly reciprocated.[ii] Low tide lays bare wounds in the heart. Love gets trapped in shallow pools where it must be safeguarded against predators until love’s next high tide comes in.

Stress and trouble accost us at every turn. Heart wounds go even deeper as these last days the Bible warns us of unfold. Love’s high tides grow weaker. Energies turn inward in order to survive. What happens when shallow pools of love evaporate altogether? I guess what the Bible says comes to pass. People end up self-absorbed lovers of themselves and sensual pleasures rather than lovers of God (and others).[iii] 

Why would followers of Christ rely on this world’s shifting tides of love when God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit?[iv] God never said love would be easy. Neither is love an option if we are in Christ Jesus.[v] What counts with Him is faith expressing itself through love.[vi]

Take heart my fellow students! God invites us to draw deeply from His ocean of agape love and grace, where the tide is always high, and wounds get healed so we can love those who can’t and won’t love back. Oh, how He loves us![vii]

Photo by Alek Newton on Unsplash

[i] Bob Jones August 8, 1975, February 14, 2014

[ii] Luke 6:32–36

[iii] 2 Timothy 3:1–5

[iv] Romans 5:5

[v] Matthew 22:37–39; Ephesians 5:2; 1 Corinthians 16:14

[vi] Galatians 5:6

[vii] How He Loves by David Crowder Band