where the love is

a friend just posted a quote from a song as his facebook status... a quote that asks a serious question: "where is the love?"

i just spent the past 30 minutes to an hour looking at news stories and fact checking and found myself looking at darkness and evil in the face.

hatred.
concentrated.
in my face.

i was asking myself a similar question... "how?"

how can people think this way? how can people claim this is the way of jesus? how can people fail to love and instead choose to live in hatred and fear?

and then i started asking and wondering... "what can be done about it? what can i do about it? what can we do?"

i think the answer came when i read the quote my friend mentioned... "where is the love?"

do we not hold love within us?

are there not some of us who seem to be overflowing with love, admiration, respect, and a desire to give it all away?

why should we hide it?
why should we dilute it?
why should we let it die?

we shouldn't.
we shouldn't.
we shall not.

a lady came up to me last week and thanked me for leading worship. she noted my name and asked if i was a "love child" - and told me her daughter, who has the same name as me, is a very loving girl - always hugging, always saying "i love you" - full of love and affection, even now at the age of 27.

this lady, in describing her daughter, described me as well. i told her, yes.

then after she left, i thought about it more, and still thinking about it - i really like that part of me. though i think not everyone understands it, and i think it unnerves some people, and i know it has been a reason for misunderstanding and tension in some of my relationships - i still like that i am "a love child."

maybe i should be out and proud as someone who loves.

maybe all of us who love should be.

maybe we should be more vocal in condemning hatred and in promoting love.

maybe we need to start more conversations and talk about this on a deeper level - work together to find solutions of love.

i am so full of love. i do not understand it. mother teresa said to love until it hurts, so that hurt no longer remains, but only more love... sometimes i think i taste that. and for some odd reason, it seems almost natural to me.

in being misunderstood, i understand that i am different, and i myself do not understand the flow of sacrifice, affection and warmth that is seemingly unstoppable. but i do not wish to stop it. and i, too, am unnerved by it.

perhaps, it is likened to a fantasy novel. some of us are keepers of the love. however, if we hide it instead of spreading it, the love will die. but if we give it, it will grow. and more will become keepers of love, until love is realized. and known.

then Love, who holds us, will be known as well.

here. that's where the love is.

not where we look for it.
not where we beg for it.

but where we simply
are.

and where we plant it, paint it, sing it, dance with it, give it, preserve it.

and Love keeps us.