Love.  It is this month’s blog subject and it has been killing me.  I know, I know . . . there is so much that can be said about it.  Maybe I should start with what I do know.  Of all the things that have happened to me in my life, of all the gifts I have ever been given, none has been as life-changing as unconditional love.  It is a diamond—the most valuable and rare kind of love.  Love has expanded my heart and healed up wounds that I just knew were permanent.  I hope that you have had that experience.  

I think that is why Jesus declares the highest command to be to love: 28One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"  29"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'[f] 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[g]There is no commandment greater than these." –Mark 12:28-31  Not only is love the defining attribute of God, but also God knows that through our participating in both its giving and its receiving, we will be healed.

Then why is it so hard?  If my one goal everyday is to love God and others (because why move on to other lesser commandments if I can’t even complete the first one), then why so often do I fail before breakfast?  How does all my determination to focus on others leave me still worried about me and my needs?

Anyone who has tried to love like this will soon figure out that unconditional love is not part of our DNA.  It must be poured into me by God as I pray that I will have eyes to see his love and a heart open enough to receive it.  Unconditional love only splashes out of me onto other people when I’ve allowed God to fill me to the rim with Him—this is the gift, the fruit of the Spirit. And on those days when there is absolutely zero splashing, that is where God meets me and washes me in his amazing grace and forgiveness, working it all for my good and bringing me back to fall at his feet.

Only God could make such a difficult assignment so sweet.  When I am full of Him, I pour out life-changing love.  When I am failing miserably and I turn to him in confession, He pours out more sweetness in the form of grace and forgiveness.  “We love because He first loved us.” ( I John 4:19)  Thanks be to God who rescues me from me and allows me to participate through my weakness in His glorious plan and kingdom.