Love- what the heck is it?

We did a project this week within my cell group. We've been having a little trouble with people not doing their chores and eating other's food, etc. A lot of carelessness. So, instead of a fine or a stern warning, my mentor met with us with tears. She brought the message to us loud and clear. We weren't showing love. So this last week was a week of serving each other. It was good. It was hard, but it was good. We all had to choose someone to serve for the week and the one suggestion was to make each other's beds. It was a little weird, but good. We also could try everything else we could possibly think of to serve. Let me tell you, the dishes were always done and so far my food hasn't been stolen.

The entirety of the last week has focused a lot on love, not only in this small challenge within my cell group, but also in class and in a paper I wrote.

Do you love? 1 Corinthians 13 seems so cliche... everyone has heard it read time and time again at weddings, seen it in cards, etc etc. But really... do you know what love is? Better yet- do you love?

Here is a small excerpt from my paper.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” (1Corinthians13:4)
We begin the list that greater explains the attributes and non-attributes of love with two positives. What is love? Love is patient, Love is kind; an automatic slap in the face to most. Patient? You mean when someone angers me with their selfishness or misunderstanding I should be patient? You mean when my child is on the floor of the grocery store complaining, I should be patient in my love? Ouch. When my spouse doesn’t remember dinner plans and shows up late I should be patient? How often we forget that Love is patient! I consider patience to be one of the fruits of the Spirit that is extremely difficult to be consistent in. But what a beautiful fruit it is. When I have better realized how to be patient, I know that I will better realize how to really love.
It is a little easier to connect Love with kindness. The opposite of being kind is mean, and certainly if you Love someone you won’t be mean to them! And yet I remember acts of injustice that I have done to friends and family that I love. Stealing, unkind words, fights, curses; the list goes on. I guess it is much more difficult to be kind than I thought. After the two aspects of what love is, Paul gives us a few of what love isn’t. Love does not envy. I love my brothers. They both have substantially more money than I do, but by the grace of God I don’t envy them for it. Though I’m certain there were times growing up that they got a bigger piece of cake than I did and I didn’t love them for it. “It does not boast.” And what happened if I got the bigger piece? Did I rub it in their face? What about a better report card? How do you handle blessings that you are given? How about blessings that another is given? Love is not proud; arrogant, conceited, self-important, pompous, self-righteous, overconfident. Ouch, ugly words. These synonyms for proud are easy to see as outside the realm of love. And yet I’m sure we can all come up with an example of how we treated someone we “love” badly because of being proud.