I think I can say what love is not.  Love is not pride, nor jealousy.  Love is not making due or settling, nor is it the other pendulum-swing of shaping to fit your needs.  Love is not manufactured, fabricated or produced.  Love is not at first sight – lust is.  Love is not blind – hatred is.  Love is not to be pondered or contemplated – it is a choice.  And if you’re lucky enough to be married to a person who has made the same choice as you then you’ve got a good shot at marriage.

But to know what love really is to fully understand God.  I’ve never met anyone who fully knows or understands God so by deduction I can reason that I’ll never fully understand what love is.  However, I am learning more about what God gave us because of His love – His son Jesus.  Can you imagine loving someone else enough to sacrifice your own son?  No way! If two people are stuck in a burning building – one of whom is my daughter – take it to the bank that I’m going in for her first.  If the entire world’s population is in that building; same answer. 

While Jesus was here, however, he dropped us a few hints as to what love is.  Pick up the New Testament and read for yourself – but the one that sticks is to love God above all things.  Is he nuts?  I’m supposed to love God more than my own wife?  Surely that can’t be the case.  Well, after 16 years I can honestly tell you that in fact, yes, that’s the case.  And here’s what happened when I did: confusion, followed by testing, chased by prayer, redoubled by more confusion and counter-punched with more testing.  Though this may not seem to be any fun (it’s not) I am starting to understand how we should rejoice in the test.  My rejoice comes through a stronger marriage, a better understanding of my wife, a better understanding of me, and the conclusion that placing God in between me and any hurdle is the only way to ensure clearance. 

So, is love enough? Yes, but not my love for my wife or my wife’s love for me.  Rather the love of God and the full willingness (choice) to accept it, embrace it, rely on it and love Him back.  I thought I couldn’t love another more than my wife, and I was certain I couldn’t love her more than I did.  I was wrong on both counts: I love her second and I love her exponentially more than before.

In many ways I’m still all these forms of a Christian.  I sin regularly and repeatedly, with forethought and spontaneously, with malice and empathy, in the open and privately.  I am a man, therefore I am a sinner.  But today I work on it, today I’m conscience of it, today I pray about it, today I try.  And that’s probably why being on the battlefield of Christ is so much harder than sitting on the bench.  I’m trying to put God in the center of my life.  It’s hard.  It’s very hard.  But it is awesome!

Below is a link to a very interesting slide show.  Thank you, Mark.  I said a prayer for you.

CENTER_OF_THE_BIBLE

Health:
1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray and read your Bible daily.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10.Take a 10-30 minutes’ walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don’t overdo. Keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything..
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37.  The best is yet to come..
38.  When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39.  Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Last but not the least:
40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about, I just did.