More than a Feeling

One of my favorite stories is Pride and Prejudice, and I love every movie adaptation I've seen of it. Three friends and I watched the 2005 version with Keira Knightley one night, and it went basically how you'd expect four twenty somethings (three of whom are single) watching a romantic movie with the greatest fictional man would go.

Watching Mr. Darcy declare his love for Lizzie at the end of the movie made me so happy, and caused me to have these crazy stupid butterflies in my stomach. I'm in love with the love between Darcy and Elizabeth, and can't wait until those crazy stupid butterflies are in my stomach because of my own beloved.

But if that's what I base my future relationships off of... to put it bluntly, I'm screwed.

Feelings fade. The feeling of heat you feel when you're angry, the churning stomach when you're anxious, none of it stays permanently. Maybe it comes back, maybe it doesn't. But if you marry them because you have the feeling of love for them, it can go away, and then what?

True love is not a measurable feeling, but an action you choose. Whoever it is, a friend, a significant other, a family member, choose to love them.

Choose to love?! I know, maybe it sounds crazy... there are some people out there who seem so... unlovable. How are we supposed to love them?

We're supposed to love them as Jesus loves them. To protect them from attack, to preach the Father's love to them, not to condemn. With everything going on in the world, it's easy to watch the news and condemn. Christ is calling us to watch the news and love. 

How do we love? Take a look at 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, you know the passage. The one that's overdone at weddings.

When we speak, and choose to love, we must ask ourselves: Are we being patient? Are we being kind? Are we humble and polite? Are our words and actions truthful, hopeful, and enduring?

If we aren't the characteristics listed above, we are not loving. Love Himself came to die for us, and when we love, we should not do it out of worthiness or attraction, rather because He suffered and died for all of humanity, proving just how lovable humanity is.

"We love because He first loved us" - 1 John 4:19

God chose to love us, choose to love Him and His beloved in return.