I keep seeing the six Greek biblical words for love discussed. Agape seems to be the ace in the pack.  How much do you love me?  Agape maybe …?

“Well on the six choices available I think … “

But wait!

If we move to Hebrew there may be ten (or maybe just one).  So if we combine all of those there might be anything between one … or four … or five … or six … or ten …

“Crap!  Just how am I expected to know if I am loving correctly?”

I think that is our creation.  Our need.  Our yearning and earning of religion and control.

I used to differentiate between unconditional love … love without condition … and “ordinary love”.  And now I don’t.  Now I think that any word that limits or expands “love” is a distraction and an obstacle to Love.

I think it has become so much a part of Religious DNA it has become (again) a valid reason for not living in love.  It has become (again) justification for loving some (our brothers and sisters) more than others (the unchurched).  For withholding love from some (them) more than others (us).   And what is love?

A choice to see the good in all.  To find the good in all.  To allow change.  To embrace change.   To see beyond what I think and believe and am in this moment.  A moment that is one teensy-fast-frame-photo in a very very long film.

A moment that is not what I may have been, nor who I may become.  A moment that is  dictated by the best I can give in that moment – a best that is less than I could give in a different moment.

A giving and receiving dictated by living every day.  Influenced by what has happened before and what is to happen n the hours to come.  Love is a choice threaded through all of that.

And my choice of actions and reactions in one moment may be considered and judged as a moment of cruelty – a moment of carelessness – a moment of being the best I can and not being good enough.  Not abuse.  Not murder.  Not physical or emotional or intellectual bullying – for that is a choice too.

Just that “mini-snap” moment.  The same moment a young child flings themselves to the floor and wails.  Just that we adults do that standing up with a snarl at those in the immediate vicinity.

“Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?” Luke 9:22-25

I think we complicate the bible too much.  We study it too much.  And by study we elevate (or trash) it too much.  We intellectualise (or brutalise) the bible.

These words were spoken into a time of religious transaction.

So why not take religion out of it, take study out of it, take “intellectual distance” away?  Why not replace all “that stuff” with “relationship” – with “Love”?

Then I think these words have great truth right now …

If any of you want to become Love, you will face those moments of upright floor flinging every day.  If you continually choose to ignore Love of those in your immediate vicinity you cannot become Love.  And if you cannot become Love what will you achieve by adorning yourself with qualifications, titles, plaudits, power, and more material wealth than you could ever use?

When those around you (discretely) applaud your dying because you forced them to live in fear of your Power rather than in freedom of Love …   Is that what you desire – is that your chosen legacy – to end living despised – separated of material wealth – a wealth divided as payback for all the fear, the hurt and suffering you caused?

Will that really be your chosen legacy?

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