|
From the PastorsOur Head Pastor - Jeremy Simons with his wife |
Every week one of our pastors shares reflections on religion, or what's going on around the community and the world.
From Rev. Glenn "Mac" Frazier
From February 14, 2010
How to Love
Love is vitally important. It is what makes life possible. And the Lord is Love itself. So it is important that we study and understand love.
There are three parts to love. First, love requires some other person as its object. This is why the Lord created us, and it is why loving oneself is not truly loving. Beyond that, loving what we see of ourselves in another is not as meaningful as loving the "other" in someone. Among other things, we are commanded to love our spiritual enemies.
Second, love desires to draw close to, connect with, and even become one with its object. We love the Lord by drawing closer to Him through the reading and living of His Word. We connect with another person by being curious about them, listening selflessly to them, and spending time with them.
Third, love desires to make its object blessed. The Lord's purpose in creating the universe was so that there could be a human race that He could make eternally happy. Just as the Lord's love looks to our long-term happiness, so should we look to the long-term--not just the short-term--happiness of those we love.
The true happiness of a relationship--especially a marriage, but also a friendship--is dependent on the good brought to the relationship by each person. You have no control over the good another person brings, only what you yourself bring. So to strengthen a relationship—all your relationships--work on your own spiritual growth: repent of an evil, and invite the Lord to spiritually regenerate you.
When you work to become better at loving another person, you make yourself a greater vessel for the Lord to flow into and through. By being better at loving other people, you are increasing the degree to which the Lord can be present in the world. Study love, and practice love, and work hard at love, and you will become a blessing to those around you.
Lessons: DLW 47-48; John 15:1-17; TCR 43
(GMF)