What is love? Well, its about agape!

First off, wow.  It feels weird typing up another blog.  I feel as if I have not typed one out in a while.

However, you have not decided to read this blog because I have not had one out in awhile.  Maybe it was the title of the blog that caught your attention.  Or, maybe I have a follower who cannot wait to see what I have to say next (which is highly unlikely).


But love is a weird topic.  Many people have tried to grasp an understanding of what really is.  There are many songs that try to express the emotions they feel, there are poets that write so eloquently, as well as many cheese letters to someone they really like- all of this to express what is known as love.

Love is difficult to grasp especially for Christians.  For example, the term agape has become a common message in many churches.  The term agape is Greek for a love that God shares with His creation.  This word is often in reference to John 3:16, where we get the reference that God so loved the world, as well as John 21 where Jesus asks Peter three times if he truly loved him.  Yet, what does this actually mean for our world today?

Some people would go as far as to say that only God can truly love.  Humanity is never able to express true love to God or to anyone.  All of creation can only become the receiver of God's love.  This, to me, begs to ask the question of why are we here?  Are we here to experience an all loving God?  And if that is the case, does all of creation go to heaven?  I personally believe in another option.

Another option to this question of love, is to say that we are able to love God back.  For, God in the very beginning of creation, began the act of creating all the earth: plants, animals, the sky, humanity, etc.  However, the story does not end there, but God say's to humanity, "work and take care of" the earth (Gen. 2:15).  Whoa, really?  Humanity is to merely take care of the world to love God?  Yes, because that becomes our response back to God.

The act of taking care of the world goes as far as treat the world as God's.  For God made the world in the beginning.  God began the whole process of the entire universe.  Taking care of creation, becomes a loving response to the Creators action.  For example, taking care of creation can be working your job.  Maybe you are a miner, or a firefighter.  These are ways that we, as humanity, can live to worship God.

Worship does not only involve working our jobs, but worship involves focusing on God.  This is why the church is so important.  Because all the workers of the world come together in a united community to lift up the name of God in praise.  God becomes the focal point.  For our responses of the week, from our various jobs, seeks to act what God intended for creation that then seeks fulfillment in praise and worship.

This question of love goes to the very depths of the initial intention of creation.  All of humanity, all of creation in fact, lives together in order to praise God through our very actions.  Our vocations become a response to God in love.  This makes Sunday worship all the more fulfilling because the community comes together to lift up the name of God in praise and worship.