[four letter word]

Did you know that the average person uses the word 'love' as many as 48 times in one day? (Did you also know that 87% of all statistics are made up?...haha, incase you didn't catch that, I have no idea how many times people use the word love- i just needed a good lead in) Anyways- I realized the other day, apparently there are a lot of things I love. I LOVE the smell of Coconut Lime Verbana from Bath and Body Works. I LOVE driving in the rain. I LOVE buying new shoes. It was only when I was telling a friend of mine that I loved her and I realized that I was telling her I had the same emotion for her as I did for my new shoes. I decided I'm not okay with that. Now, don't get me wrong. I thoroughly enjoy shoes, and the rain and what not, but I just feel like love (both word and emotion) has become so lackadaisically tossed around. So do I love my shoes? No. I love my best friend. I think this has something to do with my earlier conviction of empty words.

I heard a speaker one time who said "We look most like jesus when we are serving." Ironically, I think that the ideas of loving and serving are somewhat parallel. Therefore- don't we look most like jesus when we are loving? Another thought on that...digging into the whole idea of love languages... Have you ever noticed that everybody has a different 'love language'. I think so often we love the way that we want to, whether that does anything for them or not. I want to learn the love languages in all my relationships and love people they way that they need to be loved- even if that's not how I love best. that is my responsibility to them-to love them.

Each morning I wake up and open my bathroom mirror door to an old piece of paper on which I have written, "how will you grow in your capacity to love all people today?" That was a challenge I got from a friend of mine when I was a freshmen in high school. 5 years later-i still need to grow in that. I still need to learn how to love people- all people.

Love (both noun, word, and even verb!) have been known to get people in trouble. I want to love with no strings attached. No hidden meanings, no ulterior motives. I think that "I love you" are 3 of the most beautiful words in the english language- yet they carry so much baggage. I'm reading a book by Shane Claiborne, Irresistable Revolution. This guy showed up at his high school reunion, and when asked what his occupation was, he responded with, "I'm a lover".

My final thought on love... (allison can attest to this) is this. I don't think we hear it enough, I don't think we show it enough. I was having coffee with my friend Allison the other day, and I was enjoying our conversation, appreciating her honesty and openness, and I took that opportunity to just simply say, "I love you". Why? Because even though she knows that I think she's the bomb- why can't i just tell her that. tell me one person you've met who hates hearing that. i can almost guarentee that no one hates being loved- truly, purely, and genuinley loved.
so if you love them, mean it. if you mean it, say it.

in the words of a mr. rob bell...love wins.

love much. love hard. love strong. love well.