“Love is not an affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.” ~ C.S. Lewis
Love. That is a word that is bandied about way too often.
For many, love is characterized by how it makes one feel. If the person who is in love “feels warm on the inside”, then it is love. If the person does not have that feeling, than it is not love.
For others, love is all about giving. And giving. And giving. They equate giving things, time, money to people as love. They feel that, as long as they are giving to others, that is enough “proof” of their love.
For others, love is all about taking. They feel that there is no love if they are not receiving things, time, money, and the like from others. If something is not coming their way, they feel as if no one loves them.
Love. That is a word that does not seem to have any common definition. It means too many things to too many people.
Too often, people are consumed with self. They want what they want when they want it. They will do anything possible to get what they want. They often do not even care about what they have to do to get what they want. If someone gets hurt in the process? Oh, well.
That is not love. That is pure selfishness.
C.S. Lewis, however, hits it on the head. Love is a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained. Another way to put it would be to say that love desires nothing but good for another person.
When someone lives his or her life under that definition of love, the world can change. Can you imagine what the world would look like if everyone had the good of another on his or her mind?
Jesus did that. He had the ultimate good for each of us on His mind. Because of that, He was willing to pay the price to set us free from sin and death. He was willing to be arrested, tried, humiliated, tortured, and put to death quite cruelly, all because He had our best in mind.
Can we try to do the same?
In this world that seems to thrive on hatred, on selfishness, on greed, and on a whole list of vices, let us be witnesses to the virtue of pure love this day.
FAITH ACTION: Pray that love may take root in our lives so that we may change the world.