"I want love to, grab my fingers gently, slam them in a doorway, put my face into the ground." --Jack White, Love Interruption (video here)
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians (video here)
Love is the most overused and misunderstood word ever. In my work w teenager i often make the blanket statement that you cannot understand love until you are at least 18. They hate that. The truth is the concept of love is difficult to understand, ever!
Here is the incongruency...
I love God...
I love you...
I love my spouse...
I love my parents...
I love Basketball...
I love Pizza...
Really?
The same word is used to describe your excitement about lunch and affection for deity?
Maybe we dont really understand what love actually is.
Love in music or pop culture amounts to a cachophany of white noise. It's become hyperbole in excess.
The Beatles told us "All you need is love" and the reason why was... love is all you need. Hmmmmm. The movie Love Actually should have been titled sex actually. A quick review of the movies release the past two months feature several marriage and love themes, one about an affair and one of the most popular love stories of the past several year, Twlight. Incase you live without any media influence (if you do, good for you) the latter is a love story about vampires, again I say hmmmm... love and the undead.
Greek love
The Greeks had it right. Koine Greek which was spoken when Greece was the dominant world power had 4 different words for love, I think we should adapt them imediately.
Phileo -- Friendship love. It is based on mutual interest.
Storge -- Commonly called a Motherly love. Ususlly expressed only amoung family members.
Eros -- Erotic, sexual love. Enough said.
Agape -- The ultimate, self giving and pure love. Unconditional love of Divine nature.
As stated earlier, things would be a whole lot easier and more understandable if we adopted ancient Greek wisdom and were more speific with our concept of love.
I addition to immediately adding the four words to our way of life I offer two final thougts.
love 1. God is love (no wonder we have such a tough time with this)
2. Love is an action word
