I grew up on Disney movies just like every other girl my age. Even though the girls look different, the formula for love was always the same. Their eyes met, they danced, they fell in love, they overcame the obstacle that was in the way and they lived happily ever after.
I couldn’t wait to grow up and find that beautiful thing that these girls found almost seemingly by accident. I wondered how I would know that I was in love. I knew what anger, sadness and happiness was. But what would this feel like?
When I got a little older, I realized that I was saying “I love you” to my parents and my sister. Was this supposed to be the same emotion that the princesses felt for their prince? Or was this something different?
As I got older yet, I had one lesson in the language of Greek. I learned enough to know that the Greeks had four different words for our English word “love” that all meant something different. This, in my mind, made life so much easier. It meant that there were other kinds of love than just the romantic kind that I longed for. It also meant that maybe I was missing some of these types in my life.
The biggest relief came when I was a teenager and began to listen to DC Talk. They had a song called Luv is a Verb. Can I just tell you? The relief I felt when I realized the truth of that sentence was enormous. All of a sudden, I wasn’t defective because I wasn’t feeling this ethereal feeling for someone of the opposite sex, it wasn’t something out of my control. Love became something that I could DO, regardless of how I felt
Jesus was the ultimate example of this. I’m sure while He was being scourged and tortured and mocked, he wasn’t feeling a stained glass feeling of love toward humanity. He was feeling pain and rejection and loss, but His actions were the ultimate demonstration of His love towards human kind
The point is that that sentence “love is a verb” is very freeing. I can show love to my friends and family regardless of how I feel. I don’t know about you, but if I had to feel love to show love, it would be a very poor showing.
Jeremiah 17:9 says The heart is deceitful above all things and without cure. Who can understand it?
Don’t follow your heart. Follow the Bible and Jesus.
