Make Sure You Look
Where You’re Loving
Everybody loves. Not some, but all. There is no person who doesn’t love.
Every saint loves. Every sinner loves. Good citizens and criminals both love.
The question is never, “Do you love?”
The capacity to love is engaged every waking moment by every person but is sometimes focused in the wrong direction. The important lesson is that we learn to love somebody else. Somebody other than self.
There was never a time when Ebenezer Scrooge didn’t love. He loved before his transformation and he loved after. The difference was “What” he loved, his focus. The people or things he was attached to.
Before, he loved money, himself, his investments. After, he loved community.
We don’t think of serial killers as very loving people, but their love is more committed and more intense than most. They love the sensation they experience by abusing and killing their victims, but that’s not all.
In some cases they love obsessively planning the next murder. They love taunting authorities. They love the attention. They’re focused. They’re intent. They’re consumed by their love.
It’s difficult to understand the motivations behind it, but you can’t question their love. For whatever demented reason, they love what they do!
But if you haven’t killed three or more people yet, don’t think you’re off the hook. The not so criminally minded miss the point also. They love the houses they live in, the cars they drive, the clothes they wear and the money they flash around because it makes them feel better than others. It’s a selfish love.
There’s nothing wrong with having things but everything is wrong when things become love’s primary focus.
Love needs to be focused somewhere, and people require a lot of effort, so we use people and love status and things. But however poor the focus, we love. It’s involuntary. It can’t be avoided.
You don’t have to force people to love. It’s a natural reflex. In fact, Love in the Bible is never unqualified. There is no general command to Love. Instead, we are told whom to love and how much: God first with all your heart, and others as you love yourself. Things never!
Love is to humans what hunting is to cats. Both happen naturally, but each requires learning.
The law doesn’t penalize selfishness, unless it becomes criminal, but there is a naturally occurring consequence: loneliness.
When love’s focus isn’t managed well, it naturally pulls toward self and things to the exclusion of others. If that pull isn’t realigned, it results in greater isolation and less connection.
Not a good thing for anyone. Make sure you look where you’re loving.
THINK!AboutIt
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