Love Has A NameSýnishorn

Love Doesn’t Always Look Like Love

Love doesn’t always look warm and fuzzy.  It isn’t always nice. It doesn’t always say what you want to hear. Sometimes love doesn’t look like love.

Instead it might look like calling the cops on an intoxicated person in the street who can’t help themselves.

 It might look like staying even when someone asks you to leave because they’re “fine.”

It might look like sending your daughter who’s struggling with substance abuse to rehab.

In my life, I’ve found that people, including myself, often push others away when we try to extend love because of three things: shame, fear, or pride.

We’re ashamed. We need help but we’re embarrassed to let another person in.

We’re fearful. We’re afraid others will see us at our worst and want nothing to do with us.

We’re prideful. We convince ourselves we don’t need someone else to help us out of the mess we’re in, even though we know we’re drowning.

Our inner demons often convince us that we’re too far gone. All hope is lost. That we need to stay away from others. We’ve just decided this is who and how we’re always going to be. We feel unlovable. Like we can’t be helped. Like we were meant to be alone.

But instead of walking away in these types of situations, Jesus got closer. He encourages us to do the same. What does this look like?

It looks like talking to that intoxicated guy in the street while you wait for the cops to get there.

It looks like staying with your friend and sitting in the hurt with her.

It looks like telling your daughter that you love her too much not to send her to rehab to get help.

The results are up to God, not us. We do our part, and God does his.

Sometimes love doesn’t look like love.

Day 4 Question:

Have you ever loved someone in a way that didn’t look like love at first glance? Is there something that God is asking you to do or say that might be hard, but you know it’s the right thing to do? How have others in your life loved you like that when you were hurting or stuck?