What is love? Baby, don't hurt me.

This summer, I've been learning about love. If there has been a theme to my summer, it has been love. Working with kids, working with mom and dad getting the house ready to move, and living life. I am learning how central and how key love is to living life. Or at least this life that I desire to live.

In the past I've wondered how God could be perfect, but as I've learned about love I feel I've grasped a larger concept here. Working with kids at K-Kountry was tough. They were impatient, I learned to be patient; they complained and cried, I encouraged them; they got hurt, I picked them up and comforted them. It was tough helping them all the time, and loving them beyond my capabilities. I'd get frustrated with them but I memorized scripture to help me when I didn't think I could love them. 1 Corinthians 13 was the first place I went and learned about love. I learned the qualities found in Christ driven love. I learned to love not because I wanted the kids to love me, but because of the love I had in and from Christ.

While I was at kamp, I got into the Circle series by Tedd Dekker and it was an excellent series (Thanks Nate Sherrer for the recommendation!). It was not really a love series at all, but it made analogies to God's love for us and how He is our groom and we are his bride. I saw the analogy come to life for the first time. And realized how much Christ longs to be with us and to give us the abundant life that we can't attain without him. It blew my mind when I finally understood that.

I want to love with a love that is more like that of Christ's, and that is more unconditional and forgiving. I'm not there yet, but I'm learning about this thing called love.


Love. It is something that baffles many of us. Whether it is understanding God's perfect love, love of your friends, or a more romantic kind of love, we are all searching and are desiring to be loved. I wish I had a better understanding of love. But until we figure out this emotion and decision called love, I'll keep asking, "What is love?"