True Love

I think that one misconception of love is that people think love is a feeling. I think that to some degree - a very small one - love is that feeling in the heart, but I think most of that comes from a surge of hormones through the body. Love, for the most part, is not a "feeling". I believe that love is best exemplified through the conscious actions of the will. In order to truly love someone, they have to be willing to demonstrate it through self-sacrificial living. Also, many times I fall into the trap of wanting to naturally love someone. That our actions should be the natural outpouring of what we feel towards that person. I think that this kind of thinking can produce a lot of misconceptions of love. The first being that loving people that you love is easy. Through the example of Jesus, we come to realize that true love is hard to practice. The call to love one another is also the call to take up one's cross. Sometimes we have to "force" ourselves to exemplify love to those around us. After understanding the meaning and implications of love, we begin to realize that loving someone is contrary to our earthy nature. The world has perverted love and has made it into an impulsive feeling - rash and selfish. The only possible means of loving someone comes from the example and transforming power of Christ. We love because he loved us first. Sometimes we have to love someone not because we feel like loving them but simply because Jesus demands that of us. He asks us to love our enemies to return enmity with Christ's love. That is so contrary to human nature, to love those that hate you and that you hate. Now that's radical. Annoyed by your roommate? love him. Do you have enmity toward your parents? love them. Did someone betray your trust and break your heart? love them. Man, it sends chillls down the spine doesn't it?
Now I'm certainly not saying love means being taking advantage of. Love is being Christ to others. whether that means rebuking or even being taken advantage of, love places the self below all others. The fact that love demands such a surrendering makes practicing love so hard for me. I love being selfish. It's so much easier to do.
I think that for a long time I thought that life was easy for Jesus. That loving the prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers was easy. Now, I'm realizing that Jesus lived the most difficult life in all history. I'm sure that loving those that society hated and even loving those that hated him was extremely hard. Accepting the cross was hard. We are called to do likewise. Thankfully not by ourselves, but through the power of the only person who was able to do such things, Jesus Christ.
What is true love? Ture love is choosing to exempify the self-sacrificial life of Christ even when you don't feel like loving someone and when the world tells you differently. Love is being Christ to others even if you don't feel like it. I think that true Christianity is best exemplified through suffering. Just look at the world around you - the church at large. God moves during persecution. The richness of worship arrives when worship is hard. The fullness of love arrives when loving is difficult. The refinement of Christians arrives when being christian is difficult. Sacrifice simply isn't sacrifice until it cost something, until our hearts ache because we realise God demands our entire lives. I cringe as I write this because of the implications of what I am saying. Instead of seeking the path of least resistance, the fullness of Christ can sometimes only be experienced through the most difficult path.
I praise God. The Christian life is hard, but God is there to sustain. The Christian life is difficult, but it is the best and only life to live. God demands all because he wishes to give us all. God, give me the strength to love when I don't feel like it. Slowly change me so that my nature will become as yours. Kill me, so that you can live in me. That eventually, I will love as you love. Amen.