Where is the Love?

I used to love this song the first time it was released- I loved that it hit so much of reality and had so many good lines. But this time I went through and looked at the comments underneath the video one day and was shocked at how harsh and blind and awful people can actually be.

But the thing that surprised me most about the video- I guess because I knew the original so well- is that they took out a great lyric that used to say, “If you never know truth you’ll never know love.”

The problem is not that we don’t have enough knowledge of what’s happening in the world, far too often the problem is that we have completely lost the definition of love. We act like love is a feeling that can be switched on, changed, and demanded. True love is refusing to give up on those who don’t always care, don’t understand, and don’t always love you back. Love is not always perfectly agreeing with everyone around you. Sometimes love is being brutally honest with someone in order to save them from something that was hurting themselves. Love is not accepting people because they do the right thing. Love is holding onto them even when they don’t (me myself and I). Love is not pretending there is no wrong. Love is being completely honest about things that aren’t right.  Sometimes love is dying for someone. Sometimes it’s being willing to live for them- present, awake, listening, and trusting as you go. True love is not even the absence of bad things happening, like this song implies- love is the response to the bad things that do happen. 

I had a patient call me and chew me out today for a diagnosis I gave her child a few days ago- telling me that I was stupid and wrong and she wanted a second opinion because I was such an offensive, awful person. And I sat there with tears welling up in my eyes, wanting to say- you’re right! I was wrong and it was all a big misunderstanding and your child is actually totally normal! But me telling an outright lie does not fix the situation. Love is not just going along with whatever sounds best in the moment. Sometimes love is telling the truth and taking the backlash. Even when they hate you for it. Even though they may ignore it. Even if they walk away because of it. Love isn’t always pretty, but it’s beautiful because it’s always real.

The type of love that we beg for nowadays is not a solution. Love that is empty without commitment, love that is all-accepting no matter what, and love that is blinded by its own bias will not get you anything lasting or any kind of change. That type of love creates the world we live in- totally confused about who to love and what exactly to do and how to do it. The only type of love that really changes things is God’s love.

 “Can you practice what you preaching? Would you turn the other cheek again? Father, help us, send some guidance from above cuz people got me questioning- Where is the Love?”

 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a- Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.