love God. love people. love all the time.

LOVE

That's what I learned this summer:

I learned what LOVE is.

I learned what it means to LOVE.

I learned how to LOVE.

And I learned what it feels like to be LOVED.

LOVE is something way greater than words can express. And it's something way greater than I'm capable of doing on my own -- ever -- no matter how much I learn about it.

So, how did I learn how to LOVE if it's something I am incapable of doing? Well, all I can say is that I learned to allow CHRIST to LOVE through me.

{"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you... These things I command you, so that you will love one another."}

-John 15:12-17-

That's what LOVE is.

It's sacrafice.

It's laying down your own life -- your time, comfort, desires, needs, plans -- for someone else. It's putting someone else's wants and needs before your own. It's considering them as special and as important as God sees them [and as God sees me and you.] It's being so concerned for their well-being that you forget your own.

It's praying for them. It's showing them and teaching them CHRIST. It's letting them know that they are special and they are LOVED.

As Christ-followers, we are called to LOVE.

LOVE isn't an option in our lives. It's not a suggestion.

{"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these."}

-Mark 12:30-31-

LOVE is a command.

It's the greatest commandment of all.

{"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."}

-John 13:34-35-

LOVE is what sets us apart from the rest of the world.

And we've been sent out to share it.

So, go... Go and LOVE.

LOVE people... All of them.

LOVE without holding back.

LOVE unconditionally.

LOVE endlessly.