Love Making Sense: The Concept, Giving

So yesterday, I cracked the door open to Love Making Sense. Today, I'm going to open it a little more. In my last post, I simply said Love Makes Sense. Today, I'm actually going to start trying to prove it.

(I'm writing my Cliff's notes version of this book on here - which means very few analogies just concepts - over the course of the next couple of weeks to kind of prep myself)

There are plenty of people, Christian and not, who would say that what Christ didn't make much sense. The Man allowed himself to be tortured, humilified and crucified even though he could have stopped it all at any moment, according to the way the Gospels were written. But when he said enough was enough (It's finished), he did so on his own accord, and apparently so that we might actually know life.

Believe the story or not, that's love in it's most pure form - a person giving up their life for someone else when they don't have to. Another way of wording it - a person freely giving of themselves.

The blueprint for this love, and any other form of love you can think of, is in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13 where love is freely interchanged with the word charity in different versions of the Bible. Think about what we deem as charity in today's world - giving freely to those in need.

It could be giving to your wife, girlfriend, mother, father, brother or sister, son or daughter, friend or foe, the post or milk man. But that's the first aspect of it, to give. Giving is the thing that bring about gratification. (I might get into the other aspects at a later time, but for today this is enough)

In this sense, it's quite ironic that people put so much weight into this idea of self-love. Lesson No. 2: At its core, love is not about self. That's the biggest oxymoron I've ever heard, and sometimes I even have to correct myself of this. I find myself at times giving friends this advice. But Selfishness or self-love is the exact opposite of what love (charity) actually is.

I think it's humorous to hear someone say, "You've gotta love yourself first." Think about it. If love is about giving to others, how is giving to yourself love? It's an interesting way thinking about it. I believe the proper thing to say is "You have to know yourself first before you start loving."

But knowing/finding yourself and where (in the reflection of your own cross) is a topic for tomorrow or the next day (I think I may right about something random later today or tomorrow like about Puffy (I refuse to call him P.Diddy) and his Proactiv commercial). Just know that finding yourself is the most important part of this whole Love Making Sense dialogue. If Christ didn't find himself, we would be a bunch of lost souls with no reason to live or die.

If you can't find yourself, you can't truly give love the way it's meant to be received or appreciate the depths of it.

Anyway, know that this is just what I believe, and I don't expect to start a cult or think you should bow down to my belief. I'm opened-minded to what you think/believe. Drop me a line, and tell me what you think love is/is not.