For the last few weeks, I've been pondering the meaning behind the overused, misunderstood, little word 'love'. Love is important to me. I need it to survive and, like food, I seem to crave lots of it!
Being fortunate among women, I live with a man that loves me, constantly, unwaveringly, and for ever. I know he does, even if he's too tired to talk, forgets to tell me things and appears to be more interested in the television than my sparkling wit and scintillating conversation. Is our love measured by the attention he pours out on me, my numberless faults he overlooks, or is it my decision to let him enjoy his show in peace and find something else to do?Grandchildren are wonderful for love, when they're in the mood. Arriving at my daughter's house early in the morning, Miss Nearly Five, looked at me from under her sheets and yelled, 'No kisses!'
I walked on to the kitchen startling Miss eleven who was still half asleep. 'Why are you here?'
It was lucky I wan't relying on grand kids to fill my love tank that day! Is love measured on their reactions to me or by my responses to them?
Saint John tells us 'God is love.' There's a clue. Does that mean the essence of God is love? His very being is concentrated love - whatever that is? Does that mean that Jesus was love in skin, walking the streets of earth, defining love, as it were?
So what is the opposite of love? I asked my Facebook readers. They leaned toward 'indifference' and searches on the world wide web shows most people agree with them.
Romanian born American writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1986, Elie Wiesel, writes, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”
The whole thing leaves me feeling a little... indifferent! What about you? I guess the opposite of indifference is passion. Ah! We are close to love again.
What is the opposite of God? If God is love, the opposite of love must be the opposite of God. In the theatre of life, the Devil plays opposite God. He is pride and all things self centred. The sweetener he offered Eve was, 'You will know...just as God does.' In other words, grab what you can for yourself. Self is more important than God's guidelines. His love is restrictive.
So...is love an outward flowing force that focuses on the good of others, while the inward pull of caring firstly about ourselves is the opposite?
As, I said...just a few questions! I'd love to hear what you think.
Wow, that's awesome Jo! I've always thought of indifference as the opposite of love. But when you put two and two together - God is love, therefore the opposite of love is the absence of all that God is. Self-centredness. Darkness. Emptiness. Yes. Yes. Yes. XXOO
ReplyDeleteThanks Amanda. I'm still pulling the fullness of it together so I really appreciate your insight. xx
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jo! Love is so often portrayed as a feeling. It is far more than just an emotion and I believe we can choose to love even what the world may turn its back on- if... The danger is that enemy you mentioned. He is the great deceiver, and unless our love is the same kind as you've mentioned here that can only come from God, we can be deceived by Satan in who and what is worthy of loving. We are then at the sad risk of choosing what only will gratify our own carnal desires and not the welfare of others. He only brings destruction and misery, while God's choice of how, who and what HE wants us to love brings resurrection life and joy beyond measure - despite pain and grief. I can only define love as what I see in the Father and the Son who never cease giving of themselves and we need to know more and more about the God in Christ He has revealed to us. We can never comprehend fully the full depth, height and length of "God love". And after this long comment, it is still all inadequate trying to define "love".
ReplyDelete