Love Never Fails

If you ask twenty people what love means to them, you’ll likely get twenty different answers. I think it’s circumstantial. A person’s definition of love depends on where they are and what’s going on around them.

The other day I was driving to get my Sonic Happy Hour drink fix, and pulled up to a stop light. A homeless man was standing at the corner with a cardboard sign asking for something. I then notice him run over to a car, and an arm reaches out and gives him a cold bottle of water. It’s Houston, in May - that’s love. That person did not know the homeless man, likely didn’t even plan on giving that bottle of water away, but felt that he needed it more than they did.

I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately. How I’m not very good at all aspects of love. I love my parents. I love my sister. I love my fat cat. I love my friends. I love my long legs. I love shoes. I love traveling. I love clean sheets. I love Sonic Happy Hour. I love dark chocolate. I love Jesus.

But those are the easy things to love. Those are things that I enjoy.

What about strangers? Or people who wrong me? Or friends who just need a little extra?

But what IS love? Is love an action? Is love a thing? Is love a feeling? Is love a choice? I believe that love IS an action, and love IS a thing, and love IS a feeling, and that sometimes we choose love, and sometimes it chooses us. But I also believe that love never fails. No matter which of the above it is.

Love is powerful. Love is subdued.
Love is conditional. Love is unconditional.
Love is intense. Love is easy going.
Love is selfish. Love is selfless.
Love is true.
Love is compassionate.
To love is rewarding. To love is amazing. To love is to sacrifice. To love is a command; God’s command.

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another – John 13:34

Love the Lord your God with all heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself – Matthew 22:37-39

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another – 1 John 3:11

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us – 1 John 4:7-12

So what is the point of referencing all of this scripture? My point is simply this: God designed us to love. And we must love those whom we are not comfortable loving. We must love those whom we dislike. We must love those who we think are not deserving of love. They actually need it the most. We must do all of this because this is what we are called to do. And when we pour out that love, it transforms us.

There are people I don’t particularly like in this world. And I’m certain that I’m not the only person who doesn’t like somebody else. And some of these people have not actually done anything to wrong me. I just don’t like them.

There are people I encounter in this world whom I don’t know, but I may pass up the opportunity to love on them. Like the homeless man on the street the other day. Would I have taken the opportunity to give him a bottle of water like that other person did? I can’t save the world, I know that, but can I show some of these people a little love?

And there are other things that I do, bad habits that I have, that don’t exhibit love. I find it very easy to judge people. Judging is not loving. And who am I to judge anyway?

There is a song by Brandon Heath called Love Never Fails that goes something like this:

Love is not proud

Love does not boast

Love after all

Matters the most

Love does not run

Love does not hide

Loves does not keep

Locked inside

Love is the river that flows through

Love never fails you

Love will sustain

Love will provide

Love will not cease

At the end of time

Love will protect

Love always hopes

Love still believes

When you don’t

Love is the arms that are holding you

Love never fails you

When my heart won’t make a sound

When I can’t turn back around

When the sky is falling down

Nothing is greater than this

Greater than this

Love is right here

Love is alive

Love is the way

The truth the life

Love is the river than flows through

Love is the arms that are holding you

Love is the place you will fly to

Love never fails you

These are powerful words that express so much about love. So where does that leave us? We are called to love. It’s good for our hearts, and our minds, and our souls. It means something different to everyone, and is shown in innumerable ways, but in the end, we are to love. We are loved with a perfect love that is beyond our comprehension. The least we can do is pour out some love on others. We do this to show the world that we are children of God. It’s one little piece of Him that can shine through us.

Whatever you do, wherever you go, I challenge you to love someone today. Love never fails.