Love

I went to take a walk during work, and was praying about a plateaued kind of feeling. I'm pretty happy with how happy I am. God and I are good. Boifren and I are good. Fam's good. Friend's good. Church, could be better, but still good. I found myself praying for more joy, more love, and trying to figure out what to do next. What more do I do?

This led my thoughts into, "Well, what's the most important thing?" Answer: Love. Well, that's vague. Everyone has a different idea of what love is. I thought about what love is for my evangelical church. It's telling people Jesus loves them (and if they don't accept him, then to hell). It's also doing nice things for people, being there for people, etc. Though I feel as though "the people" they go for are of a certain type, or just whatever God tells them, c.f. "Treasure Hunting". Love for God is quiet time (consisting of prayer and Bible reading) and being excited or super sad during rock out worship.

My evangelical church's view of love is NOT my favorite. I do not like it. I do not want to do it.

Other things that I think come up in church when talking about love are obedience, justice, turning the other cheek, being non-judgmental, care for everything, sacrifice, commitment, forgiving... it might be feeling, or it might not be a feeling. It is an action. It shouldn't yield negative stuff (at least in the grand scheme of things). It's never ending. It holds things together. It's Harry Potter's power against Voldemort. It's a mystery. It's God.

Well, no one person can ever hope to be all those things (not to mention God). It's overwhelming! And sometimes some of those things conflict and fight with each other! It's annoying! "So which is most important?" I wondered. And I think the answer is probably whatever I am best at. And the answer for you, is probably whatever you are best at. Do that. It's love.

Stuff Christians Like: Valentine's Day

There have been a few fun things I have discovered, for example, "awkward 'you're single' conversations" at church. Gotta love John Acuff, and yes, I have seen people shake their heads in shame at my uterus. Seriously, not being single is the single most important thing ever. Proof of this can be seen when just today, Valentine's Day, my facebook status was hijacked by my boyfriend, "P__ has the greatest most awesomest boyfriend in the history of ever." Within about 5 minutes, every church friend from back home "liked" my status. PROVED: singleness sucks, not singleness and bragging about it online makes you facebook popular.

However, if you are single, or are not single and like boycotting Valentine's, NPR has a great rationale for this here: Exploiting the darkside of valentine's. Though drinking and beating each other seems just as worth celebrating to me...