I want to love well

During faculty devotions Jennifer Taylor, a colleague of mine, encouraged the faculty of Houston High School to love well as we went about teaching lessons, coaching athletes, and fine-tuning the performances of artists. At graduation she commended the class of 2010 on their collective ability to love well. Loving well is a theme that not only a theme of Jennifer's speeches, loving well is something that Jennifer does. It is something I want to do well, too. It is my newest passion.

Now, I am not great at it. If loving were swimming, I would still be wearing floaties. If loving were riding a bike, I would still be using training wheels. If loving were driving, I would still have my learner's permit. But ... I know it is important ... and I have some great examples, including The Greatest Example, Himself.

Consider 1 John 4: 7-12
"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."

Loving well is of ultimate importance ... it is the way that God's love is perfected in us and evidence that He lives in us. The most challenging thing for a goal-oriented person such as myself is that the way to become loving is to get to know God and let Him enable me to love ... "love is from God." He must live in me and his love must flow through me. My efforts are a poor substitute.

It really makes sense: the GREATEST commandment is to love God ... the SECOND is to love my neighbor as myself. The first is primary, the second is derivative. "'...You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" Once I love God with all that I am, I will know him. Not to sound overly dramatic, God's love is lavish, that when I spend regular time with him I find that his love overflows into all areas of my life. Loving my neighbor will be natural.

My problem has been that if I think I need to be more loving, I tend to try to act more loving instead of drawing closer to God. Silly me. I am impatient. I get tired. I get hot. I get hungry. All of which tend to make me cranky ... which makes it very hard to ACT loving. God, however, IS love. He is long-suffering. He never gets tired. I don't think he gets hot or hungry or cranky ... and I am promised that if I love him with all that I am, I will know him, and I will love others ... and I will love well.