Last Thursday, I wrote about "The Right Kind Of Hope." Today, it struck me, might be a good day to provide some thoughts on "The Right Kind Of Love."
The kind of "love" that comes most immediately to mind, at least when I think about "love" as a topic - is nicely illustrated above. That is the "falling in love" kind of love. Falling in love is a glorious experience when it happens, and all the more glorious if it happens simultaneously to two different people who find themselves falling in love with each other. That "falling in love" kind of love is sometimes denominated "romantic love," and, as I just said, it's wonderful.
There is nothing "wrong" with falling in love, and please let me make that clear, lest anyone who sees my use of the word "right," in my title today, might think that I am suggesting that any kind of love different from what I want to highlight in today's blog posting is, in some way, "wrong." That's not what I am getting at! As I say, if it happens to you, if you're lucky enough to "fall in love," there's nothing "wrong" with that - though do check out the Ten Commandments for some possible pitfalls.
Here's my point: "Falling in love" is something that "happens to us." Again, that can be glorious! There is, however, a different kind of love that is not something that happens to us, but that is something that we, ourselves, "do," something that is the product of deliberate choice, and that may, actually, require some "work," and even "sacrifice." That's what I am calling the "Right Kind Of Love," not because other kinds of love are necessarily "wrong," but because I think that achieving what is commanded of us is an accomplishment truly worth celebrating.
"Commanded?" Yes.
The Ten Commandments, already mentioned, are requirements that tell us what NOT to do. Here is something from the Book of Matthew (Matthew 22:37-39) that tells us what we are supposed to do:
A lawyer, asked him a question ..., saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
We need to appreciate all the good things that are given to us (and, even in troubled times like our own, there are many such good things). That granted, I always believe that what is most important is not what happens to us, but what we do, ourselves - what we make happen by our own choice and action.
We can, really, "do" anything. "Possibility" is, in fact, the category that rules us all. We need to choose, and act, and that is the "real" glory in our human life. Or, so I think. I believe that Jesus got it right in outlining exactly what we are commanded to do. Two things only, as the commandments on which hang "all the law and the prophets."
That kind of love does not just "happen to us."
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