How to Live in Love

How to Live in Love: It is no rumor that the greatest source of sorrows or pleasant moments is Love; either the presence or lack of it thereof. And so, the big question since the beginning of time is: WHAT IS LOVE?  How to Live in Love?

I believe many of us grew up hearing our grandma or an uncle or an elderly neighbor say that God is Love; so I believe the bigger question is: WHO IS GOD? Then again, if God is Love, then LOVE is GOD, so the even bigger question is: WHO IS LOVE? 

I’m not going to pretend to have a precise answer because then I would have to really explain who God is and this would add more questions to our list of questions: How to Live in Love? CAN ANYONE REALLY EXPLAIN GOD? HAVE OUR HUMAN MINDS REALLY BEEN ABLE TO

COMPREHEND THIS GREAT BEING KNOWN BY DIFFERENT NAMES BY DIFFERENT RELIGIONS AND CULTURES AND SECTS? CAN GOD BE PUT IN A BOX SO SIMPLY? Well, I do not know of anyone else, but I would reply in the negative to all three questions.

So back to our very first question, WHAT IS LOVE? and How to Live in Love?
If God is Love then we can say that first and foremost LOVE IS A PERSON. Then, unto our ‘even bigger question’, WHO IS LOVE?

How to Live in Love?

How to Live in Love: Finding Redemption and Gratitude

Sometime back, a friend of mine who had been trying to get me to go to church with her finally convinced me to go after a long while and it so happened that that very morning I was preparing for church, I was so weary of many things and I felt so let down and disappointed in myself that if I hadn’t already given her my word, I would have stayed home and wallowed in my sorrow but I summoned all the will I had in me that day and went to church with no expectations.

In fact, as a writer, I thought I’d pass the time by coming up with a write-up for my next article. Oh well, I got to church that day and sat quietly while others were standing and singing along. Then the young man leading the song who could have passed for a hippie on another day brought up a different song that caught my attention and it goes thus:

‘Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me
You have been so so good to me
Before I took a breath you breathed Your life into me
You have been so so kind to me

Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless Love of God
Oh it chases me down, fight

s till I’m found, leaves the 99
I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give yourself away
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless Love of God

There’s no shadow you won’t light up
The mountain you won’t climb on
Coming after me
There’s no wall you won’t kick down
Lie you won’t tear down
Coming after me

Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless Love of God
Oh it chases me down, fights till I’m found, leaves the 99
I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give yourself away
Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless Love of God!’

These are the lyrics as I recall them. This wouldn’t be the first time I’d be hearing the song, but this very day, I actually listened to it and it was my undoing. I, who had been sitting with my legs crossed while others were standing and lifting up their hands, didn’t need a pastor to tell me to stand up and do the same. I couldn’t think of anything else to do at that moment because my weary heart was just consumed by Love. Though it’s still a raging battle between my friend and me to get me to go to church, I still recall and draw comfort from that Sunday morning moment.

I believe the words of the song will comfort someone out there, especially in this dark time of war. I could have googled it to check for the official lyrics but I wanted to first share it as I heard it, then hopefully in our next article, I’ll post a link to the lyrics and the original song.

Religion, though well-meaning, has painted the Creator to be a God of raging fire and brimstone, but in this song, I saw the tender heart and mercies of God. All He wants is to Love me, me! Can you imagine?! A wretched being like me, He wants to love me. He is a God of order, I mean if you look at the universe, you’ll know that whoever created it must really be a perfectionist who is obsessed with order but this perfectionist is reckless when it comes to loving me. He will likely rain down that same fire and brimstone just to prove His Love for me to the world. If this is the way He Loves, if this is what Love looks like then I don’t just want to know about Love, I WANT TO KNOW LOVE.

Dear Lady,

I know that boy broke your heart and you’re still hurting ten years later. Dear Sir, I know your best friend whom you trusted with your life, and your girlfriend whom you adored wrecked you so badly and ran off together that even though you are married to a wife who loves you dearly and has given you two wonderful sons that you still cannot reciprocate that love, that although she has sworn to never leave you, there’s this constant fear in you that you’ll wake up one day to discover she’s gone took your two sons with her.

Dear little child, I know you’re 25 now but deep inside, you’re still that 9-year-old girl who was abandoned by her mother and abused by her father and uncle so you are so consumed with hatred for everything and everyone, and now that hatred has caught up with you in the form of a terminal illness but yet you won’t forgive them and justifiably so. Dear old lady, I know you’re hurting and distressed because, after all, your sacrifices, your children abandoned you and left you with a broken hip to fend for yourself.

Dear elderly man,

I know you’re so weighed down with regrets and you’re so disappointed in yourself for the things you did and didn’t do while you were younger and now you’re 65 and you’re all alone and contemplating suicide. I know you’re hurting, heartbroken, disappointed, full of regrets, distressed, depressed, and just weary but if you’re here, then I plead with you, please don’t give up yet.

I know you don’t believe in love and you’re convinced that you are worth living but please just hold on a little longer. Let us on a journey together. Let’s take a trip the discover Love together and I promise, yes I promise, that if you would just open your heart a little on this journey, you would see that LOVE HEALS ALL WOUNDS, yes ALL. You would see that LOVE IS ALL WE REALLY NEED and it is enough.

How to live in love: LOVE is not something that anyone can claim to truly comprehend. Its meaning has really been corrupted over time and hence our understanding of God. So let’s embark on this journey together to discover what Love really is and How to live in love, or better yet WHO Love really is. 

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