The word love is about the most misunderstood word the world over today. From the perspective of Hollywood, love is presented to the world in movies as a sexual relationship between a male and a female. They do not have the perception that these movies project the female gender as basically a sex symbol and that the real motive of the male in these movies portend an exploitative attitude. Most of the story lines present run contrary to the concept of what true love is. This is a skewed presentation of what love is. Hollywood therefore presents sex to the world and calls it love.
Many of us today have accepted this narrow-minded definition of love and the mere mention of this four-letter word immediately evokes sexual thoughts and inclinations in our minds. Generally, we have allowed a lot of things to be explained and defined for us from the wrong source and perspective. In the same manner, we have consigned the understanding of a concept as deep as love to the warped and immoral mind-set of Hollywood movie-makers.
You may not be among those with the kind of tunnel-vision understanding of love and might even be a Christian with a good standing in the Church and with God. What difference does that really make? Many Church folks are as guilty as those who have the understanding of love from corrupt-minded movie-makers. Once you talk about love in the midst of the believers, they immediately raise their holy antennas and question the rationale for love relationship between the brethren especially if they are of the opposite sex! They have also bought into the Hollywood concept that consign love to mean immorality and sex! “God is love”, we affirm. But what is the result of this belief and affirmation if the people for which Christ died are alienated and not shown the love in practice? They attest to love in mere words and deny the power that it brings when put into action.
The object of God’s love is people. If people cease to matter when love is concerned, even if God’s name were to be dragged in, it will amount to nothing. Today’s religious people have erroneously overshadowed the purpose of God’s love for mankind with so many meaningless activities that only feeds our over-bloated egos. We are more willing to testify of being on our kneels praying for ten hours rather than seek for opportunities to be able to testify that we spent a whole day with a friend who needed our company to overcome a serious fear or emotional stress in his or her life.
The question we should ask ourselves often is: what is the result of our prayers in the lives of people? Does God delight in activities that just satisfy our half-alive consciences on what we believe to be God’s heartbeat? I have heard a lot of well meaning Christians say that God’s heartbeat is to be shut up with Him in prayers. Prayers, yes! We possibly cannot do anything without it. But what does prayer mean when it is not focused on what lines up with God’s ultimate purpose for mankind? Prayers as God’s heartbeat must be carried out in conjunction with actions that results in the fulfillment of the overall objective of God on earth. This objective is basically reconciliation of mankind to God. Imagine a scenario where our Lord Jesus Christ came and performed all the miracles and wonders we see in recorded scriptures and yet never went to the cross to die for us? As a friend once said, that would have been “half-bread being worse than none”.
In defining true love, I do not intend to take you through some new or strange path or to propound a new theory, but I believe that as you come along again in the unveiling of this subject with another author, your understanding will be enlightened and God’s Grace will cause you to live a meaningful life according to His purpose for mankind.
... to be continued.
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