Heard

I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my supplication . . . . 

 - From Psalm 116

Godly love is an impossible practice for us. It requires us to put all others ahead of ourselves. It requires that you be all in, for the good of others, when they are present. It requires you to sacrifice everything, in order to serve others. 

You must be a perfect listener, in order to love as God does. 

Godly love is total proactivity. God doesn't love us because of how lovable we are. He loves us because He loved us first. Without even knowing us (although He knows everything) God loves us still. 

But our response to Him may be to love Him. When He loves us - first - it presents itself as a model to us. We had no clue what love even was; but then when God loved us, we understood it right away. Oh, that's love. I see now. 

I tell students all the time: the most difficult skill you may ever learn, is the skill of listening. It's so hard to listen to others. Our heads are full of so much noise. We lack filters that enable us to drop everything else and focus on the person before us. Real listen requires us to actually watch the person talking to us. An eight-year old may say (and they do. All the time) "I can read and listen at the same time." Or, "I can pay attention and listen to my music at the same time." But they can't. These kids, that were born innocent and without any wickedness in them, will stand there and lie to your face. 

Because they'd rather not listen. Because listening is hard. And at the end of the day we don't want to admit it. At the end of the day we want to reframe everything so that we're still not a good listener, but we're good people anyway. 

But without good listening skills, you will never be any good in the practice of love. Real love. 

The 2023 generation injects the word "love" (but not the actual concept of love) into every social issue. "I'm a lover not a fighter." "Summer of love II." "Marry who you love." 

But in arguing their values and political objectives, they fall far short of actually listening to anybody.

And if you want love in the world, you'd better start by improving your listening skills.