Love

Posted on January 30, 2010, 1:10 am, by Thom, under Life, Spirituality.

Genuine Christian love is forged against the anvil of our selfishness and possessiveness.

… It is important to remember that love is more than a feeling. It is active and transitive. The real test of my loving is not that I feel loving, but that the other person feels loved by me. Love is what I do to create this sense of feeling cared for.

- Morton T. Kelsey, Companions on the Inner Way

If I might be bold enough to say it, I think that this is where many- most- people fall short. Love is not an emotion. It is not something that we feel when we think about another person. While feelings are all well and good, it is our action that lets us perform the act of loving another.

All of the warm feelings in the world are not love. Feelings are chemicals; love is action.

Pax et bonum.

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5 Comments

  1. Melody says:
    January 30, 2010 at 8:41 am

    “All of the warm feelings in the world are not love. Feelings are chemicals; love is action.” Very good point, Thom. I feel like I ought to frame that one and hang it on my wall.
    I love the Taize chants, I have a couple of their CDs. I don’t think they’ve made any new ones in awhile, unfortunately.

  2. Davis d'Ambly says:
    January 30, 2010 at 9:52 am

    “Walk in love as Christ loved us” – far more than feelings.

  3. Thom says:
    January 30, 2010 at 9:54 am

    Melody, I love the Taize chants, too. And I particularly like the one I posted. We use it on Good Friday usually.

    Davis, very true.

  4. Tim says:
    January 30, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    Love must always take particular and concrete expressions; otherwise it is mere sentimentality.

  5. Thom says:
    January 30, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Exactly, Tim.

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