This kind of love is not the common variety, and it is not easy.
It requires practice, discipline, and a willingness to be vulnerable.
It means putting the needs of another ahead of your own.
It means self-sacrifice, even sacrifice of self.

This is not trite and syrupy sentimentalism, nor is it an emotion.
It is a radical commitment.
We DO give a damn about the well-being of others
and we will do something about it.

It is not something that leads to feelings of being smitten
or blindly lead us to not see things that are wrong.
This love does not condemn others, accepts them as they are;
Their faults, disfigurements, bad habits, and failures;
Just as they are.   Just as we are.


This love does not necessarily involve high heroics,
It is practical. It makes a difference. And it matters.
It is evident when someone cooks for another,
when a mother takes on three or more jobs to keep her family.
It is donating blood on a regular basis to the local blood bank.
It is risking looking un-cool by rejecting gossip or a hurtful racist joke.

Such love happens when someone decides to forgive instead of retaliating.
It happens whenever people put the needs of others ahead of themselves;
speak truth to power;       feed the hungry;
clothe the naked;         visit the imprisoned;
release the captive;       love the unlovable;
forgive the unforgivable;       associate with the disreputable;
eat and drink with the unsavoury.

Such loving is our intended way of being.
It is a path to the fulfillment
of the Purposes of God