"Maybe loving someone is not about the happy ending; maybe it's about the story."

   In this post I would like to talk about love. Not your average "I love you" type love, not even your average "Will you marry me?" type love. Rather, I would like to take a moment to tell you about the love that changed my life, the love that gives me eternal life and eternal joy. I want to tell you about the love that set me free. God's love.

   You heard me, the Creator of the universe, the King of kings, the almighty God; He loves me. He loves me so deeply, so intensely, so intimately, that He sent His son to this fallen and broken world that He might live and die for me. Not only did He live, He lived a perfect life that I might follow His example and bring others to Him. Not only did He die on a cross for me; He suffered, was beaten until He was unrecognizable, and then He died so that I might live eternally with Him. Now, that's not the end of the story though. After three days, Christ rose again. He defeated death, He conquered sin; and He did all of that for me, you, and everyone that has ever lived or ever will live. He loves us so much, that no matter how far away from Him we have wandered, He will always be waiting with open arms for us to come back to Him. He will never leave us, He will never give up on us, and He will never stop loving us.

   To say I have an awesome God is vastly an understatement. The King of heaven wants to know me and wants to be known by me. Not only does He love me, He gives me His love to share with others. There are no words in this world that could ever contain the vastness of God's love for His children. Also, if you ever feel as though your love is not good enough, remember that you are created in God's image, which means that your love for others is based off the pattern of God's love which is perfect in every way! We will mess up and we will fail, but as long as we learn from our falls, they will only help us to fly. 

   With the image of God's love in mind, I want you to think about our love for one another. How we interact, how we communicate, the time we spend together, and the time we spend apart. Let me use my own personal life as an example so that I hopefully communicate coherently what I am trying to tell you about love. 

• The love I have for my parents is based upon the fact that they are the ones who raised me, taught me what is right and wrong, they are the ones who guided me and nurtured me. My father is the one who taught me how to shoot a gun and how to fish. My mother is the one who taught me how to bake cookies and wash dishes. They taught me the basics and complexities of life as I grew up, they are the ones who guided me into figuring out who I am and why I am on this planet. They are the ones who taught me about God and His love. Love always protects.
• However, my mother was also my teacher for most of my younger years and through grade school. She taught me Kindergarten through seventh grade as well as my ninth and tenth grade years. So while I loved her as my mother, I also loved her as someone who taught me new things. Yes, there were times where I didn't want to learn and when things were difficult to grasp, but she persevered through all of that with me. When I was in public school, my teachers taught me about the world, not only as it is but as they saw it. Each perspective is different and they taught me to love everyone despite how they might view things in life. My teachers taught me to love life and learning about it even when it's difficult. They taught me to persevere and become better than I was the day before. Love always hopes.
• My friends are the people I have met along the journey of life. Some people come and go while others stay around. No matter how long someone is in your life they are going to influence you in some way, they are going to have some type of impact on your life. I love those people for helping me become the person I am today, I love them for the unique beauty they made by leaving "footprints" on my life. Then there are the friends that stick around, even when sometimes you wish they wouldn't, those are the people that most likely know more about you than your average acquaintance. These are the people I love for shaping me and molding me each day. They teach me new things and remind me about the old things. These are the people whom I love for their involvement in my life. Of course, there is also your best friends, I personally would say I can count my best friends on one hand. These are the people I trust with my life and with the lives of the people I care about. These friends are the people that I look up to and that I would do anything for. I love them for the impact they have on my life every day and I know I can always turn to them with anything, good or bad. These are the people I love because they are faithful and trustworthy, these are the people who will experience life with me. Love always trusts.
• This is where it gets a bit tricky, being interested in someone of the opposite gender. Oh dear, this one is a bit tougher for me to wrap my brain around when it comes to putting my thoughts into words. I suppose when I date someone, I love them more than I love a friend because there is something about them that makes me interested in knowing them on a deeper level. Yet, I don't necessarily love them as much as I will love the person I marry one day, depending on if the person I date is the person I marry. Tricky business, I know. I love the person I am interested in or dating because they make me want to know them on a deeper level and because they make me want to make myself a better person for them, or for others, depending on how serious the relationship is. Love always hopes.
• Here's the one that gets twisted and miscommunicated the most, the "happy ending" love. Loving the person you decide to spend the rest of your life with. People make it seem as if there is anything that indicates you are not "happy", that relationship is simply not meant to be. I am here to tell you that is absolutely false! Just because you have your downs doesn't mean you throw it all away! Now, I personally am not married but I have talked to a lot of couples my age (20) and older that have taught me a thing or two for when I do get married. One of those things is that: love perseveres! Through the ups, downs, and everything in between. There are going to be times where you seriously wonder why you married the person you did, there are going to be times where you are not all sunshine and roses. That is where true love comes in, that is where love is a choice not a feeling. Choosing to love the person you chose and loving them despite the circumstances. The person you spend the rest of your life with will mess up, and so will you. Loving them is forgiving them, loving them is saying "no matter what I am by your side", love is knowing that there is a waterfall ahead and all you have is a canoe yet you stick by your partners side anyway and support them the best you can. Love is serving the other person and sacrificing for that person even when you don't always want to, even if you never get a thank you. Loving someone is drawing close to God so that they might be drawn closer to Him because they are by your side. Loving someone is seeking to know God more intimately so that you might know your partner more intimately because we are created in God's image. Loving someone is saying "no matter what you're going though, I am here for you". Love always perseveres.
• The last yet the greatest is my love for God, my Father and Lord. My love for Him would not even be possible if He did not love me first. I love Him with my every breath, with my every moment, with every thing I do in life, I love Him. There will be so many times where I falter and wander, yet I will always love Him because it is in my very being to love Him. He is the source of my joy, of my life, of my love, He is the source of my purpose and my very reason for living! Knowing He loves me and that I love Him in return is what gets me through each day. Knowing that the King of heaven loves me and wants to spend time with me, that He wants me to love Him with everything I am. How can I say no to that! Yet there are so many times where I wander; it's not that I don't love Him, it is that I am imperfect and fallen. I get distracted and don't focus on loving Him, yet He always loves me. Unwavering, unconditional, deeply, intimately, agape. God loves me always no matter what. Wow! That is the love that we have the potential for, our love comes from Him and is patterned after His love, therefor we are capable of loving others as God loves us, but only with God's love. Everything always comes back to God. I believe that if we do not love God, then we cannot truly love others. We can love them on a surface level, but unless we know God's love and love Him, we cannot love others as He loves us and how we are commanded to love. These three remain: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love.

   My point being, there are many different levels of love and many different ways of showing love. However, true love always points back to God. His love for us is the ultimate love story, and He has invited us to create that story with Him. Love is not just in the happy moments or when everyone is laughing and smiling; love is being someone's shoulder to cry on and the one that gets back up with them when one of you falls. Love is knowing God intimately and sharing His love without limitations or expectations. There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.