Day 120 "Love Remains The Only Permanent Solution to Violence and Hatred"

The solution is simple, but the implementation is profoundly inadequate. Love. Love for one's fellow man which puts their interest before one's own. You can't legislate this. You can't demand it. You cannot mass produce it like some product in a chemical lab. You can't manipulate it. You can't use it to your own advantage. Real love is not exploitational.

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

But, real love changes everything!

It is a foolish endeavor to try and bring heaven down to earth and believe that we can orchestrate and build a utopia here. Too much fear, too much self-centeredness, to much insecurity to foster a system which puts other people's interest before our own. Jesus, himself, was was put to death by the religious leaders of his day in his attempt for drawing people to the idea of loving God and loving one another. Truth be known, the religious leaders feared and resented the attention Jesus was getting from the people. Doesn't sound much like love to me on their part, does it to you? If utopia was something that was truly possible on earth, why did Jesus make reference to the poor as follows:

"The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."

Matthew 26:11

Jesus never preached building a godly kingdom here on earth. But he did preach how were are to act while we are sojourning here awaiting for our own time to leave this world and go on to his heavenly kingdom.

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two com-

mandments." Matthew 22:37-40

The irony is that only love can truly change the heart of man. Everything that we have seen and witnessed connected to George Floyd has been man-made and has culminated from years and years of selfishness, greed, hatred, abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Not even remotely close to love.

So, what is the answer. The answer is personal and one-on-one. Though we cannot change the world in its entirety, we can affect the world around us that touches us personally. How do we do that? By learning how to genuinely love. And, in order to do that, we need to have personal knowledge on what it is like to be loved. This is doable. This is possible. Jesus came to lay down his life for us so that we can live a new life in him- a life centered and maintained in love.

"Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Romans 12:2

If you are waiting around to see a major shift in man's kindness and caring for each other, you are in for a long wait. But if you are willing to have your life be used in affecting life on earth for the better, than I encourage you to get to know God's love for you. It is a game changer. All the other rhetoric that you hear is simply noise. Grand gesture, possibly. But world changing, hardly. The only way effective love will be experienced on a large scale is if each of us choose individually to embrace love in our own lives and then seek to let love reach out to others through us.

The apostle Paul was acutely aware of love and what it can do. Just before he begins his summary of real love in 1 Corinthians 13, he starts at the end of the previous chapter with this statement:

"And now I will show you the most excellent way." 1 Corinthians 12:31

Love is a choice. Oh, but there is no greater companion to travel through this life with!

*******************************************************************************

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6

In his love, see you back here tomorrow...

"Carpe Momentum in Love" (Seize the moment in love)