Love is a wonderful, troubling, confusing concept for any 20-something. The emotional highs and lows of relationships can leave one drained and disillusioned. Fortunately there is another love that one can ascribe to. Unfortunately it isn't any less confusing, but thankfully easily attainable through the grace of God.
That love, as I'm sure you've deduced from the title, is called agape love. Many of us growing up in the church have heard this word frequently. I would dare to say that there are very few of us who actually grasp what it truly means. Agape love is uncoditional, self-sacrificing love. Perhaps the greatest thing about agape love is that it is not driven by emotion. To quote All Mine to Give, "Agape is based on attitudes and actions" and says "I'll love you whether you love me or not." Perhaps the hardest part of agape is that it requires us to love unconditionally. This means loving someone who has wronged us, loving someone who we deem unworthy of love along with loving people we find easy to love.
I have not even scratched the surface of this great area of study. Our intergenerational connection group has just began looking at this in depth and this study has really made me think about how I treat those around me. I'm sure there will be more on this subject to come.
...on the way home.
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1 comment:
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." :) Great thought from a movie about, well... you know.
But seriously, agape love is a hard concept to grasp, especially when our instincts tell us to hurt those who hurt us and love those who benefit us. I will have to reference "Blue Like Jazz" and say that perhaps we can only first begin to understand how to have agape love for others when we come to terms with Christ's agape love for us. Maybe we have to be shown first so we can demonstrate it later.
I don't know. I wish I was there to talk about it every week with the connection group.
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