Flamingos

Love.

Mismosh of gooey feelings and harsh realities: never perfect and a battle when the messiness creeps in. I find this true for any type of love.
You want to love your neighbor - you have to deal with their flamingo lawn ornaments.
You want to love your parents – you have to obey and respect their authority even when you may not agree.
You want to love those who don’t know Jesus – you have to build relationship that shares common interests but stands firm in the truths of the Jesus you love while also living like the Jesus you love.
You want to love someone for the rest of your life – you have fight against your selfish need to go see a chick flick for the 5th time and instead sit in the hunting stand - without any talking and wait for a damn deer.
You want to love your friends – you will go out of your way to make them dinner or drive them to the store when their car breaks down.
You want to love the homeless – you actually stop your car, go through the McDonald’s drive through with them and buy them whatever they want instead of debating in your mind if you should give them money and wondering if they will use it only to buy drugs or alcohol and then just keep driving because you already passed them and “Its too late. I have things to do” is declared.
You want to love your siblings – you let go and forgive them of the time they called you “adopted” or change your attitude about their “higher” social status/looks/whatever and talk to them.

The second greatest commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. He must have known what He was talking about when He wrote that. We usually put ourselves first. So if I love others like I love myself…

Love is a battle. Love is a lot of things and has a lot of different levels. But there is a common string between them all: sacrifice.

How willing am I to sacrifice my time, energy, money, talents, ideas, possessions, words, actions, car mileage, whatever to show love? Do I just wait for someone to first show me love before I show them? How will I show love when everything in my body tells me its poison?