What's love got to do with it?

So love. Let's talk about it. Anyone who's watched movies with me knows that I'm that one person who likes to talk during the film. I just can't help it. When you're sitting next to someone, doesn't it make sense to verbally share the experience together? And those dedicated enough to our friendship who have watched more than one movie with me has had to listen to my passionate rantings on how love is portrayed in Hollywood. With all the mushy kisses, sappy lines, and heroic gestures we see in the film world, we tend to forget that we live in the real world filled with heartache, divorces, and affairs. I don't say this to be negative or cynical, in fact, I think that in order to reach the positive side of things, you have to visit the negative first. Of which I think Hollywood tends to glamorize or just avoid all together.

 I've seen a countless number of movies where two people in unhappy marriages fall in "love" and divorce their spouses and start their new life together. Lines like "I just wasn't happy with that other person," and "You make me happy," are heard in these type of movies. Or I've seen movies where after knowing someone for a whole 2 hours, the main characters fall into bed with each other and after about a month and one minor falling out, they live happily ever after or at least that's where the movie decides to end. In these movies, you hear things like, "I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you," or "I feel like I've known you all my life." Then there's movies that follow the plot line where two emotionally damaged people find each other and fall into "love." You hear things said like, "You love me like he/she never could have," or "You complete me."

Now all these things might have good intentions and maybe at some point they are good, but are they love? And does Hollywood show the real side? It shows you scenes of steamy love affairs, but does it show you the scenes of the little broken hearts crying in their beds wondering why mommy and daddy aren't reading them bedtimes stories together anymore? It shows you love at first sight romances and spontaneous proclamations, but what about 5 years down the road when you realize you don't really know the person you married. It shows you passion-filled nights and morning kisses, but does it show you what happens when you realize the other person's bad habits or the brushing of the teeth that has to happen before the morning kiss? It doesn't show any of it. Therefore it leaves a society, very much affected by Hollywood's message, with a twisted picture of real love.

So then I ask God, "What is true love then?" Well, it's in the way the Lord loves me. The way He pursues me, His faithfulness, and His forgiveness. It's found in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, John 3:16, John 15:13, 1 John 4:10, and many other places in the Bible. Love is God extending Himself to us, not us reaching out for Him. Love is laying down one's life for a friend. Love is sacrificing your life for a world full of people that could never pay you back. Love is patient and waits for the right person in the right season, love is kind even when the other person is annoying, it doesn't envy someone's else wife or husband, doesn't boast about its many one-night stands, it's not prideful but puts the other person's needs before their own, it's not rude because it strives to speak words of encouragement, it's not self-seeking but considers the aftereffect of one's actions, it's not easily angered and avoids hurtful words, keeps no records of wrongs and forgives even when it's not reciprocated, it doesn't delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, it always protects the little ones following in its footsteps, always trusts and doesn't assume the worst, always hopes and believes in the other person, it always perseveres and is patient with others' struggles, and it never fails, not even for one second. Love is a choice, not a feeling. Love is something we are only capable of with God. God is love (1 John 4:8), and outside of God, there is no love.

Now I love movies and I enjoy watching them. But I can only take them with a grain of salt. I have to fill my mind with God's Word so that the message of Hollywood grows faint. I have to love the people in my life based on God's love for me. I have to guard my heart and wait for the man God has for me. Now I'll be honest and say that I have never found myself in a romantic relationship/entanglement, and you can be honest and say that my lack of experience might make me not a very good authority on love. I wouldn't for one second blame you for it. But I will say that though, I've not yet met the one God has intended for me to love, I know love, true love. And though I am not perfect at loving, I am loved by the One Who is. So there you have it. Now you don't have to sit through a movie with me to hear me rant, cause you just read my blog. Take it or leave it.