The Decision to Love

I don’t really want to love everybody who crosses my path. But I love hearing from my favorite Purple Pastor that my M.O. is to love others wherever they are on their journey.

Loving others can be hard work. Unlike me, others are sometimes irritating, small-minded, negative, draining. Some of them wear size six jeans and their hair looks good no matter how humid it is outside. I’d rather nod and keep moving, lose their phone numbers, talk about them behind their backs. But it’s my business to love them.

To do that, I have to forget most of what I think I know about love. Love is not what Hallmark or Harlequin tell us. Love is a choice I make to be a force for good in someone’s life. It’s a decision I make to be a kind and loving presence, a source of support and encouragement. Love is not a feeling, it’s an action.

Love is not a feeling, it’s an action.

The feelings follow the action, of course. When I make a decision to be a kind and loving presence, I eventually end up with a kind and loving heart. And that is the power of love. Love changes everything. And it can only change things for the better.

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