Is This Love....?

I think this blog is going to have several parts to it...Here goes part one.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had this question going over and over in my head. Is it LOVE? You hear the words “I love you” all the time from many different people in your life. But are the words really meant or is it just a phrase that people say to make the person hearing those words feel better? In 1987 a rock group by the name of WhiteSnake had a hit single called “Is This Love” that went to number two in the single chart making this song their second biggest U.S. hit. I guess that question is one of the biggest questions that people ask themselves. No wonder the song went to number two in the charts. People want to know “Is This Love”?

For those of you who actually know me you’ll understand the following research method. I went to Webster’s dictionary to get some clarification and Webster defines “love” as the following: 1 Strong affection or liking of someone or something: 2 A passionate affection of one person for another. If you noticed the definition there is one word that is the same in both descriptions…affection. So, I went to Webster’s again. Affection: 1 fond or tender feeling. Another word that caught my attention was the word passionate, which means having or showing strong feelings. Passion is any emotion as hate, love, fear, or intense emotional excitement, and my favorite, the object of any strong desire. The OBJECT of any strong desire…so there has to be something or someone that you SHOW your tender, fond feelings to. Not only is there a showing of this feeling but there is someone who receives it.

I’m sure that there are some of you out there that hear those words and the first thing that goes through your mind is, yeah right. I know that I’ve heard it from people and I think you don’t even know me how can you say you “love” me? People have said those words before and had no reason to say it. They just said it because it sounded right at the time. It made the person sitting across from them feel like they were important and had meaning in their life. Maybe that’s the way the people that said it to me wanted me to feel, like I was important and had meaning to them. There has to be another way to make people feel like they are important to us...but that's another blog.

I guess the best example of love we have is that of Jesus Christ. No greater love has ever been displayed. Even though he cried out to God, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless….he followed through with it. That is love! That is a true display of strong affection, passionate affection of one person to another. Isn’t the definition of “Christian” to be “Christ like”? When was the last time you actually went through a "crucifixion" for someone you allegedly “loved”? Some of you can answer that with the statement that you’ve been through hell and back for the people you love. You’re the kind of person I want in my corner. You’re not afraid to fight for what you want. You’re the kind of person that I seek out to be my friend. You're tough, determined and will not let anything stand in your way. Even if the people you're fighting for don't return the same affection, you're showing YOUR love, not theirs.

When Christ says He loves us, we know he means it because he showed how important we are to him. When you fight for your spouse, your children, your friends and you tell them you love them, they understand those words because they know what you've done for them or where you've been for them. They know the sacrifices and dedications you've made for them. There is no question when the words I love you are spoken because they know just how important they are to you. You've shown it.

So, to answer the question asked "is it love", I guess you have to ask yourself another question. Am I willing to "die" for this person? If you can answer yes to that question, then yeah, it could be love...but these are just my thoughts on a page.