Wednesday, February 3, 2021

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Welcome to February, the month of love, right?  There’s a song that we sing within the Walk to Emmaus community that starts out…”Love, love, love, love.  The Gospel in one word is love.”  Singing those two sentences puts a big grin on my face.  It’s really kind of hard to describe love.  Okay, think back to your teen years and that first crush you had that you were soooo sure was love.  Oh no, I’m not discounting that at all.  Your first crush was actually a great starting point.  It was a new and exciting time.  It probably made you feel happy and good about yourself.  Maybe even a little more confident.  But on the other hand, you may have felt a little unsure as you experienced new emotions.  Now, consider how different your first crush was compared to your first serious relationship.  If you’re like me you may look back and think, “Wow, I really had no idea what love was.”  Each relationship we experience and share, we grow a little more in our understanding of love.  There are so many different characteristics of love and just as many types of loving relationships.  The ones that top my list started with my parents and siblings and grew into loving relationships with my husband, children, grandchildren, and friends.  There are so many things I enjoy doing with my loved ones.  So how did they earn their coveted places in my love circle?  It all started with my parents and them showing me love by taking care of me.  That is an unspoken love that is known without a word being spoken, that built a strong foundation for my current understanding of true unconditional love.  It’s a love that brings with it a feeling of comfort and peace.  In your loving relationships, you may find yourself doing what I do.  If I feel the need for…then I reach out to…because I know they can provide that kind of love for me.  But today I need…so I’m going to reach out to…because they know the exact loving words to share.  And so it goes.  We build that circle of loving relationships so that we always have the perfect person to draw from when we need it.  Right?  On the surface it’s starting to sound like the majority of love is about what we receive.    

A warm sunny day. Forgiveness.  A walk in the woods.  Grace.  A friend to talk with.  A listening ear.  A healing touch.  A guide and mentor.  Compassionate.  Faithful.  Merciful.  Patient.  Dependable.  Trustworthy.  Peace.  Savior.  Genuine.  Truthful.  Unconditional.  These are all aspects of my relationship with God.  But the greatest of these is love.  Why is that?  It’s because they are all aspects of love.  God IS love, therefore EVERYTHING He does is love.  It’s such an overwhelming experience and feeling, there’s no doubt we crave it.  Actually, it’s more like we’re addicted to His love.  God offers us a class of love that we as humans can’t duplicate, but we constantly desire and seek.  Unfortunately, at times, we go looking for His love in all the wrong places.  In those moments, just stop for a moment, breath Him in, and He will guide you back to Him and His ONE TRUE LOVE.  This week’s song isn’t one of my typical songs, but it made me smile and I thought it was fitting.  Besides that, God can and will use anything and everything to bring His message of love to us.  Bless others and be blessed.

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that He may also bless others.

#RobertPalmer – Addicted to Love