"But notice this: that love is not really one of man's powers. Man cannot achieve love, generate love, wield love, as he does his powers of destruction and creation. When I love someone it is not something that I have achieved, but something that is happening through me, something that is happening to me as well as to him."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p.230)
Love is a word that often comes out of our mouths. We tell people we are close to that we love them. I tell my wife this everyday. I'm not as good at articulating it to my sons, but this may be a particular hick up in the life of the father-son relationship. I know I love them, and would do anything for them, and try my best to make their lives enjoyable and create space for them to grow in. I also tell my parents that I love them, which I do.
I also know that love as word is something that can flow very casually as well, without much depth. How many of us as teenagers told the current "flame" at the time that we loved them. Perhaps we were parroting what we heard others say, but generally I doubt that I really loved any of them. I liked them well enough, but was still working out what it meant to really love some non-relative in that way.
The same can be said I think when we say we love God, or love Jesus. What do we really mean by that? Is it words we say because that's what we think we are supposed to say? Is it like that teenage "love" where we use the word while working out what it really means to us?
The hope of course is that it becomes something much deeper, that manifests itself not only from our lips, but in our lives. Lip service to love is often used to get something back. Fidelity and service to love is when we know it is real.
Blessings,
Ed
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