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<\/p>\nAs I\u2019m writing this, Valentine\u2019s Day is tomorrow. I have a pretty good prediction of what is going to happen. Tomorrow millions of people are going to be sharing a special day or moment with someone they love and care for. And millions of other people are going to be writing Facebook statuses and tweeting about how they don\u2019t need love and how much Valentine\u2019s Day is a Hallmark holiday, and how their greatest date is with Ben & Jerry\u2019s and so on. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!<\/p>\n
But amongst all the festivities or anti-festivities that will be happening, I wonder how many people will really be fully appreciating the true meaning of that 4-letter word being spouted about everywhere.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The truth is that while love can be pretty and flowery and romantic at times, that\u2019s not all <\/i><\/b>it is. Or even most of what love is, for that matter. In fact, I would argue that one of the best definitions – or at least certainly one of the best indicators – of true love is…death.<\/p>\n
Love is gonna kill you.<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n
True love is not about what we gain from it. It\u2019s about what we give to it. And we have to be careful with this. Because sometimes we may be secretly thinking about how what we\u2019re doing for someone else is going to positively affect us. Let\u2019s be honest, that\u2019ll be in the back of at least some men\u2019s heads tomorrow. But the idea with true love is that we move to the point of thinking of the other\u2019s needs first and foremost.<\/p>\n
1 John 4:9 \u201cThis is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.<\/i>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Love is sacrificial.<\/h3>\n
The greatest example, as you can tell that we\u2019re using here, is that of Jesus. God is love and He demonstrated that love with flying colors by sending Jesus from heaven to earth to lay His sinless life down for our sinful ones. It was the most sacrificial thing He could do. And our love is most accurately called love when it is being truly sacrificial. I\u2019ve seen my parents give up on things they wanted to do because of their love for each other. Our world tends to think that if the person loves you that they won\u2019t make you sacrifice anything to love them back, but that\u2019s a load of crap.<\/p>\n
John 15:13 \u201cGreater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.<\/i>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Love starts.<\/h3>\n
Love is patient but it\u2019s not passive. Love is active in its pursuit of the beloved. And so Love Does<\/a>, as Bob Goff is insisting in his recent New York Times bestseller. Real love doesn\u2019t wait for the other person to make the first move. It is risky and adventurous. It moves forward first and sets things in motion. We can\u2019t wait for others to love us well, we should love well first. After all, we\u2019re not even the first<\/i> anyway!<\/p>\n
1 John 4:19 \u201cWe love because he first loved us.<\/i>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s perfectly alright and probably rather good for us to celebrate love. So don\u2019t get all bent out of shape if you\u2019re not in the spot relationally that you wish you were in. Love is more than just romance. Love is death and anyone can do that. And quite frankly, each of us would be a whole lot better off if we did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"