What is Love? Baby [I’m open to being hurt]

You may recall these song lyrics from a pretty funny Saturday Night Live skit…

What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more

Here’s a guy wondering if he can call his relationship love, if in fact he continually gets hurt by his lover.

Somewhere in the course of history, we lost sight of the real definition of love. We now publically doubt that love might mean occasionally feeling hurt.

Here's reality. There is no greater love than to continually open oneself to another, suspecting or even knowing that pain is imminent.

Love is not a feeling. It’s not your mood. It’s not your pain. It’s not your delight, or excitement. It’s not what you feel like.

It’s an act of the will. It’s actions. It’s a verb. It’s putting another ahead of you.

Sometimes, that doesn’t feel good. It might mean hurt. It always means humility.

But it’s also a full-time realization that life isn’t about you, or me, or any individual. It's about God, followed distantly by being about a collective we.

What’s love but a second hand emotion?

Every good a virtuous thing besides that.