"Let Love Be Genuine"
"Let love be genuine," Paul instructs as he is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Before I can determine what makes up genuine love, I suspect that I need to contrast it with the kind of love that is not genuine - love that is not love at all. Here are some ways that I egregiously fail to live up to this command to love from a pure heart:
I smile and kindly greet people that have offended me, yet simultaneously harbor distance and guile in my heart against them. I often inquire about a person's well-being ("How are you?") while hoping they will reply with the customary "I'm-doing-fine" so that I won't feel the burden of responsibility to care for them any more than convenience will allow me. I preach that we should build strong spiritual alliances with one another, yet I seek the respite that isolation and privacy affords me - or I run to comfortable, familiar relationships instead. I often remind my family that I love them with all my heart, yet unconscionably expose them, over and over, to my impatience, short-fused anger, and emotional indifference - sometimes for the sake of study or prayer.
I don't need to belabor this point as it is crystal clear what genuine love should look like, at least in my life. A painful, but necessary meditation. What would genuine love look like in your life?
Created about 1 year ago
