Where’s the Love?
When love is missing, we know it. We see the results—the pain, anger, and fear that lead to loneliness, depression, and division. In our Where’s the Love? series, we’re exploring how we, as the Church, and as individuals can learn to love like Jesus does—changing hearts, including our own.
I remember watching a movie several years ago and feeling like something wasn’t quite right. The story was interesting, the visuals were great, and all the actors were very good. It was enjoyable, but something felt…wrong. Nearly halfway through the movie, I figured out what it was. The plot revolved around a family going through a crisis, but as I watched them, they didn’t behave like a family. At the beginning of the movie they were portrayed as a tightknit, healthy family. But when conflict came, they reacted with suspicion and anger. The story the movie told about this family in the beginning didn’t match the story it told in the middle, and it was jarring. It didn’t make sense and made the rest of the movie ring false.
Love One Another
© Church Motion Graphics
In John 13:35, Jesus tells his disciples “all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 says that even if he were a gifted speaker, had the powers of prophecy, and tremendous faith, those things would all be meaningless without love. Without love, Christianity is meaningless. And if we say that we are Christians but do not have love, the people around us will experience that same disconnect I had when watching the movie: They will know something doesn’t fit.
Wisdom from Mister Rogers
Mister Rogers once said, “Love is at the root of everything. All learning, all relationships. Love or the lack of it.” If I leave the house one morning and forget my belt, my day isn’t going to change much. I might not be as comfortable as usual, but I’ll probably forget about the belt pretty quickly. But if I leave the house with no shoes, that’s going to change my entire day. A lack of love isn’t just an absence. The lack of love can have just as much of an impact on a life, on an entire culture, as the presence of love. When love is missing it changes us, changes our heart. That lack is often glaring in the places we most expect to find it—a marriage, a family, a Christian.
“Love is at the root of everything.” Mister Rogers
When we look around at all that’s wrong with the world, it’s easy to say the answer is love. What is harder to admit is the root cause of these problems—how WE have not been as loving as we should. To one degree or another, we have not been who Jesus called us to be.
We need to change that. Without love we have nothing to offer the world. If, however, in Christ we have an understanding of love as it truly is, then we can be the agents of real and lasting healing. I believe we are called to be the visible presence of God in this hurting world. Where’s the love? The answer should be “wherever God’s people are.”
What about you? Where have you felt a lack of love, and how can you help prevent others from experiencing the same?
