I love you. There. I said it! I love you! I LOVE YOU. Why is it so hard to say I love you? We associate it with relationships between couples and family members. I have no qualms telling my kids I love them. My parents hear it all the time, but when it comes to you, I fall short.
Is that because it is hard to say? Is it because it is hard to do?
In John 13:34-35: Jesus instructs us to love each other. That you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
So, Jesus wants me to love everyone. How do I do that? That guy from this morning that arrived at class late with no pencil seems unlovable. That girl that aggressively demanded her coffee be hotter at Starbucks doesn’t want a hug.
I am being told to love. I want to love. Maybe, I don’t know how?
Is it expressed in “I love you”? Is it in a warm embrace? Under a romantic summer’s rain?
God tell us what it is and where to find it.
Find it in patience towards a person who doesn’t deserve it. See it in keeping your mouth closed when you can do something better than someone else. Choose to be kind instead of rude. Be willing to do it the way someone else wants it done. Do not carry resentment with you everywhere you go. Try not to be so irritable. Don’t praise someone else’s losses or failures. Celebrate truth. Be strong and continue to do these things no matter what, believe when you have been lied to, hope when it all seems lost. Love never ends.
So, I can’t just say I love you and be done with it? No.
You have to live love. Carry it with you. Use it as a filter. Bring it along on every road trip and down every side street. No matter how short the journey or how long the adventure. Check and make sure you pack it in your divine toolbox, right next to that ChapStick you never use. Same idea. It is just better to have it just in case you need it.
