It is late again but I have found that once again just before I would like to be asleep my brain turns on and begins to think. I am sure I am not the only one who is wide awake when I should be getting sleepy. :)
I have found myself on this cold winters night thinking about genuine love and relationships. I have been thinking about how the two end up very directly in relationship to each other. I have been in several meaningful relationships. I am not just talking about romantic ones.
Take a moment to think about your relationships. Who are your best friends? Who is your closest companion? Who are your acquaintance's?
Now take a moment to think about why those relationships hold the status that they do. In my life, my most meaningful relationships have been time, tested and true. My parents and family have put up with me through thick and thin. My closest friends have been the ones who have been accepting of me and I of them in hard and good times. These are the people that I have laughed with, cried with, resolved conflict with, and done dishes with.worked many hours to resolve conflict with. These are the relationships that have been tested.
I am not talking about fluffy feelings. I am not talking about affection. I am talking about genuine, profound, action love. The kind of love that could only be inspired by a being who has a heart that is love.
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Wow! Either directly or indirectly every single adjective about love comes into play as an antidote to broken relationships. Could it be possible that discovering genuine love is really a series of tests? I mean, in most relationships, a lack of understanding of love or not responding in love is what breaks people apart. But when you come up against a situation where you choose to 'love' then you gain a more deep relationship but also a deeper understanding of genuine love. Think about it, maybe the relationships we have that are not as meaningful, or strong are the ones that have never been tested. Maybe love has not been tried in them yet.
Let me shift this to another level. We are all searching for true love. Seriously, who do you know that has no interest in finding true love. God truly loves us. He extends His love to us all the time. It seems that in the most trying times of our life we see most clearly how much we need to accept His love. When we accept it, we grow closer to an understanding of true love, we grow closer in relationship with God, we better know how to give love to others. I am having trouble fully wrapping my mind around the implications of this. Is are relationships ultimately a response to love? Think of how many ways this impacts relationships of all levels. Yikes.
All I know is that the love of God is and always be tried, tested and true. That is it.
I am not sure this makes sense at all. I am just pondering things that are bigger than me.
How do you respond when love is tested?
~Charis Vaags