Friday, August 24, 2007

To Know and To Love

To truly know someone and to love them anyway...this is agape love. It's our life's mission.
"The first and most usual misunderstanding of agape is to confuse it with a feeling. Our feelings are precious, but agape is more precious. Feelings come to us, passively; agape comes from us, actively, by our free choice. We are not responsible for our feelings — we can't help how we feel — but we are responsible for our agape or lack of it, eternally responsible, for agape comes from us; feelings come from wind, weather, and digestion. “Luv” comes from spring breezes; real love comes from the center of the soul, which Scripture calls the heart (another word we have sentimentalized and reduced to feeling). Liking is a feeling. But love (agape) is more than strong liking. Only a fool would command someone to feel a certain way. God commands us to love, and God is no fool." -- Peter Kreeft
I have a bit of a problem with the famous adage "Love means never having to say I'm sorry." I think it presupposes some sort of thoughtless reactionary forgiveness or perhaps a mutual understanding of flawed behavior (i.e. You mess up and I do too. Therefore, things are ok). What it doesn't account for is the beauty of grace. Grace is without question the fullest expression of love. Grace is a foreign idea to us because it makes very little sense in our world of "required" reciprocity. Grace costs us our pride, costs us our desire to be "right", and costs us ourselves. Love does not mean never having to say I'm sorry. Love means never having to hear it.

--Brimas

7 comments:

The Dude said...

good to see you back...

Matthew said...

I agree with the notion that love is active, but I think, like grace, love is extremely hard to define. Matt Chandler did a series of sermons on the three Hebrew words for love: Riyah (affection), Ahavah (commitment), and Dode (intimacy). I think this is a cool way to think about it -- each kind of love has to build on the last. You begin with friendly affection, then you develop a commitment that, at its best, mirrors Jesus' willingness to die for the very people who were ripping the flesh off His back, and, finally, you reach a level of physical, emotional, and spiritual intimacy that can't be fully understood or experienced without Riyah and Ahavah.

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled in ... have you ever heard of Rob Bell's "Noomas"? The one called "Flame" does an awesome job of explaining and portraying the three Hebrew words for "love". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtP5cQdprvk&feature=related

Anonymous said...

hi ppl. I'm really into shoes and I have been searching allowing for regarding that meticulous brand. The prices as regards the velcros are approximately 210 dollars on every site. But completely I base this site selling them for half price. I really like these [url=http://www.shoesempire.com]prada sneakers[/url]. I will probably purchase them. what can you tell me about these?

Anonymous said...

Good brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you as your information.

Anonymous said...

[b]Supreme Search Engine[/b]

[i]A powerful new search engine on the Net! Find information and websites on the Internet. [/i]

[url=http://www.supremesearch.net]Supreme Search Engine[/url]

[url=http://www.supremesearch.net][img]http://www.supremesearch3000.bravehost.com/Mini.jpg[/img][/url]

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.c-online-casino.co.uk/]casino games[/url] coincide the latest [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]casino[/url] autonomous no store bonus at the best [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]casino games
[/url].