The definition of Love and society's obsession with acting on 'feelings' alone.

Everyone is searching for answers and for meaning in life. What are they supposed to do with their lives? How can they receive fulfillment or happiness in their hearts? What is the answer/appropriate response for all the turmoil in their personal relationships (professional, family, romantic, friendly)? The answer is love...probably not a concept you've heard for the first time and for many this answer feels cliche, vague and mostly intangible.This is due to all the misinformation and lack of an appropriate definition for love.

Society would have you falsely believe that love is a feeling, but feelings are transient. Many in society today are led to believe that what makes them 'feel good' is what's best for them. But making decisions based on something that is always changing without a logical outlook on the future can only lead to one thing: always wanting more.Think about your favorite romantic movie and how the main characters fell for each other. They interpret their attraction, lust and infatuation as love. If you were to calculate the actual timelines in which it took both characters to determine they were in love, it is somewhat unrealistic to expect that they could build a relationship that would stand the test of time. And yet love is supposed to be something that can keep people together (romantic and non-romantic) through thick and thin, it's supposed to be everlasting. In today's world we have developed the concept of falling in and out of love to further support it's position as a 'feeling' that we have that can come and go.

To be clear, feelings can be connected to love, I'm not petitioning it to be completely independent. In romantic relationships we often times see feelings being the gateway or lean in to love. But to entirely define love with feelings not only falls short of it's true definition and ability to impact our relationships, but relying on feelings alone is not enough to change our society. This will result in love feeling inadequate as a response to some of life's greatest interpersonal and internal struggles. To help define this term, we must first look at the greatest examples we have of love. In a secular sense, the strongest example we have of love is a parent (especially a mother) to their child. A connection is made that changes most parent's forever and a large part of it is an inherent feeling that goes beyond simple emotion and into instinct from our DNA. What our instinct reveals is an self-evident portrayal of sacrifice from the parent towards their child. From a religious sense our great example of love comes from John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not parish but have everlasting life". This paints the picture of Jesus being willing to sacrifice himself for us.

So essentially: Love is sacrifice. It can be connected to your feelings by aiding you in your decision to make sacrifices. But this concept also opens the doorway for you to choose who you love independent of how you feel. You can love your neighbor that you don't know even without having the feeling of butterflies in your stomach every time you see them. You can love the poor and the homeless, you can love your family even when their is negative tension and emotion, you can love others even when you have political disagreements and most importantly, if two people get together on the basis of attraction and chemistry they can make a conscious effort to communicate, sacrifice and understand each other...they can display a relationship that stands the test of time. When you are with someone and life begins to drive a wedge between you, how long can that wedge last if you continue to put each other first in your relationship? This conscious effort to put whoever your loved ones are before yourself outlasts the arguments, flared tempers and hard times if both parties love each other. From family, to friends and even acquaintances.

The Left vs the Right part 1: Debates is a key sacrifice many have to make to improve the frequency of resolutions in a disagreement. But only when we can begin putting others before ourselves (educate ourselves on different cultures and ways of life) and become better educated on the topics at hand can we begin to improve resolutions in disagreements. And as far as love being the answer to 'What are we supposed to do with our lives?', anyone involved in service to the less fortunate, raising a child or making their spouse happy can tell you their is no greater feeling of self fulfillment in the world.As far as politics, all too often when people get into an argument they attempt to convince the other person of their point. And the argument isn't settled in one parties mind until they feel they have won or they have convinced the other person to change. Hence the low resolution rate for so many political and personal arguments. Being able to see things from someone else's point of view and find common ground as I mention in my article

This is why love is and why it's the answer. "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" 1 Corinthians 13:7