Love Doesn't Have Square Wheels

A complacent love is about as useful as a train with square wheels.

Imagine, if you will, I have a girlfriend. Ok, I really don't, because God hasn't blessed me with a young lady's hand to hold yet. But bear with me: my girlfriend is beautiful, and I love her dearly. More than words could express. Now, our one year anniversary is coming up soon, and I wanna do something special for her. So I go through my art supplies, and find the best, most perfect sheet of red cardstock to use. I fold it up, just like a letter, put it in an envelope, and hand it to her on our special day. I watch anxiously as she opens up my letter, and finds a blank sheet of folded red cardstock. She wouldn't be too happy, would she? 

Or, even better, I head to the BEST chocolate shop in the county and buy her a box of assorted chocolates. It doesn't come with one of those decoder sheets, so it's a mystery every bite of heavenly bliss. It even has a heart shaped box encasing the deliciousness. I go home, wrap the box, and sit on my bed with my box in my lap, thinking of how much she will love them! I imagine her reaction, and how great it'll be to see her smile. Then I set them on my desk, turn off my lamp, and go to sleep. The next day, I wake up, go to school, come home, and hold my box of chocolates and imagine her reaction. Days pass in the same fashion, our anniversary comes and goes, and eventually the chocolates become stale and need to be thrown out.

Would I have shown love to my imaginary girlfriend? Absolutely not! 

See, love isn't satisfied to sit and think about loving; love acts. It moves. If your love isn't moving, then you aren't sure what love is and you've mistaken it for whatever you hold. Love is crazy, whimsical, and free. Free to make mistakes, to forgive, and to be a little bit goofy. Love is willing to dance before strangers, to grin wide at the sky, to shout the object of it's affection amidst crowded streets. I've been reading a book called "Love Does" by Bob Goff and it's really revamping the way I look at my favorite thing to ponder! 

Last night my church had it's monthly Night of Worship, where we just praise Jesus for an hour. It's too short, in my opinion. Anyways, I'm kinda strange and stand in the back right corner, instead of sitting in the rows of chairs, because it's void of people and I can worship more freely. I love my Jesus! I was singing at the top of my lungs, pacing, praying, closing my eyes, clenching my fists, stomping, jumping, bouncing, ANYTHING I could do to release the tension that causes my chest to swell! My grin could NOT get wide enough; I needed it to be much bigger if I was gonna portray accurately the love I feel for my Jesus. 

How can someone praise a God they love and NOT get excited during worship? How can they keep their faces somber as we sing praises of Jesus raising from the dead? How can they just stand there, reciting lyrics on a screen, and not be overjoyed at the beauty of their meaning? I just don't understand! My God is mighty, He is beautiful, He is fantastic!! The emotion that floods my veins cannot be adequately contained in my frail human frame, it MUST come out! My spirit jumps and flips and shouts within me, screaming for more more MORE Jesus! 

"If we have been filled with living hope, 
we're gonna overflow!
And if God's love is burning in our hearts,
well ya know we're gonna glow!
There's just no way to keep it in!" - Steven Curtis Chapman

He hit the nail on the head. Love doesn't stay locked inside, complacent to just think about acting. Love bursts out in crazy (and often strange and whimsical) ways. Our God loves us so much, and fills us with His love! Who are we to hide it from others? Who are we to shy away from spreading His love with others?

And this is where my love-train derails and flies off the tracks. When we're worshipping God with our mouths and bodies and spirit, it's easy to be filled and go nuts for Love. When we worship God with our lives, it's a little different. I walk the halls of my school, and often face fear because I'm afraid to love out loud. To be different from others. Love is such a crazy thing, and it's foreign in it's true state to many. If I loved in my school, it'd be radically changed. But my fear oppresses me and pushes me into the ground.

Love drives out fear. Therefore, is my love a conditional one? How can I remove conditions from my love? Some of the conditions I face are that I must be accepted, I must be comfortable, and I must be given the chance to speak freely. If I am not accepted, if I feel uncomfortable, or if I am shunned because of my love, well, I just won't love. These must be removed if I am to look like Jesus. Plus, it's really not me loving my school anyways... it's God's love being outpoured THROUGH me.

I don't know what you face. You may have been shown love, but have never given it. You may have conditions on your love. You may not even fully understand what love is because it has never been shown to you or given by you. Regardless, God knows what love is, and He knows it WELL. He gives it without condition every second of every day to a broken world that refuses to love Him back. He can show us how to love! Let's run to our God, who knows what love is... after all, He IS Love! And after being shown what love truly is, we can start giving love to others, to EVERYBODY, without condition. Then we'll start to grasp what it is to #LiveItLikeJesus.