What’s Love Got to do With It?

But I have to say
I’ve been thinking about my own protection
It scares me to feel this way

What’s love got to do, got to do with it
What’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion
What’s love got to do, got to do with it
Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken  

 Tina Turner Song (1984)

A real love for others will chase those worries away. The thought of being punished is what makes us afraid. It shows we have not really learned to love.   

 I John 4:18

So, if ever there were a topic to discuss that is so large and so complex, it is love. There are many aspects of it, of course. More popular songs have been written about the topic than any other subject. It is a topic near and dear to us, and it is of crucial importance. It is misunderstood, misused, and so often missing in a world that needs it as its guiding principle.

Romantic love is intoxicating. It is chemistry. It is exciting. It is incomplete. Of course, we are completely enamored with it.

I see so often in relationships that people will say something like, “I love her, but I’m not in love with her.”  That is a convenient way to say that the physical intoxication, the romance, the chemistry, has faded away. So, now the relationship’s energy is not like it was. This often becomes the “permission” to seek to break off from the partner. That kind of love is incomplete. In a committed relationship, when you have “lost that loving feeling” (yeah, another old school song reference, look it up) is not the time to look for another partner. It is the time to work on real loving.

Real love is a decision. Real love takes sacrifice. There has never been true love without sacrifice. Just look at the example of Jesus, who showed the cost of real love.

So, in the coming days, we will be looking at some aspects of love.  Would love to have you with me on the journey!

Prayer: Father, give us better understanding of your loving nature so that we can heal your creation, Amen.