If you’re anything
like me the idea of love is enticing & the reality of the experience or
lack thereof – is superficial & painful.
It is a double edge sword – we spend all kinds of resources trying to acquired,
find, experience this illusive phenomena.
The messages in our culture tend to be superficial & sentimental at best – lacking in
reality – and destructively cruel at worst.
We talk up love as if it is the end all be all. We throw our hands up, get hurt & angry
when we feel left out of the experience of Love.
Storge – is used to describe a parental love; Xenia –
a love of the stranger that results in hospitality; Philia –
a love that encompasses loyalty, virtue, equality, and familiarity – the love
of friends, family & community – it is the love in which one finds safety
& security;
Eros – romantic, passionate, longing love
– literal meaning “in love” -the love of beauty internal and external – the
love which draws souls together seeking truth and beauty – a spiritual and
bodily love (the root word of erotic) This is the feeling or "emotion" of love.
Agape – an ideal or Divine love –
unconditional love - Love of the soul – it is the verb “to love” Truth be told even for the ancient Greeks
these terms cannot be so clearly segregated, and often one finds them blended. The glue that binds them is Agape.
Agape Love is the love I know best – it is a Godly love. The word itself
is a VERB - a word of actions not feelings. It is a love that not only
includes us – as human – but all of creation/cosmos. It is something that can only be revealed
rather than defined. Love happens in the
way we treat each other & the world/creation. If one looks closely at
the way scripture refers to love, even in the poor English translations it is
our actions we are called to when referring to love. God's love is about
the actions toward us, "God so loved the world
that he
gave his only Son. . ."(Jn 3:16) The hardest
part is that it is an action from the heart – it is not based in knowledge or
logic - it is without selfish motive, it does not expect to be reciprocated, it
does not require payment - it does not act for getting ourselves in good with
God, or getting our asses out of the fire. It is something we do, just
because - we want to make the other happy, to give pleasure, to give a free
gift, to lighten the load, to ease the suffering - even to give of ourselves
for another knowing that the most likely response will be oblivious, even the
rejection of what is offered, or outright violence because of what is
offered. It’s best defined in St. Paul’s, often quoted – rarely
understood, first letter to the Corinthians, “Love is patient; love is kind;
love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist
on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in
wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (13:4-8a.)
This is the love by which “IAM” created us, touched my soul, changed my life and called me
to live out of. This is the love that calls me – us - to our better selves. A Love – in
which nothing is required, yet provokes change – it compels a response in kind. The gift of the Spirit is when love is
recognized & expressed even through our brokenness.
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