As I sit angrily in my bed as the clock reaches midnight, the song "What is Love" rambles through my head. I feel too often our society that we are blessed to live in, forgets what the purpose is: to love. We are called to do this simple task but it seems to be a not so easy task with everyone we meet.
There are many different forms of love, to name a few: there is love of oneself, love of neighbor and even romantic love. What has been really bothering me, however, has been love of neighbor. Often times these four little letters l-o-v-e are mistaken for four different letters l-u-s-t. To truly love is to be selfless and to lust is to be selfish. This distinct difference is what drives our society apart, our houses and our so called friendships.
When you’re selfless in your friendships, you want what is best for that person. Whether motivating them in doing their work or calling them out when they messed up. Messing up is normal. It is in our innate humanity to mess up, if we didn’t mess up, life would not be interesting. When someone truly loves you, they will point it out. Not because they are judging you or mean, but because they realize the importance of your growth as a human being.
If you ignore someone's genuine concern or acting out of sheer personal desire, that is lust. Lust in and of itself is selfish and purely focused on your individual desires, clearly disregarding those around you. Sometimes what you want as an individual is not what is best for you. Yeah, I want to eat four dozen chocolate chip cookies but that's probably not what's best for me. A good friend, out of love, would hold me accountable and remind me that eating four dozen cookies is not good.
Just imagine a world where there is no accountability. Where there are no repercussions for ones actions. That world would be run to the ground quickly and it would be hard to find true happiness. When people close to you hold you accountable, they do it out of love. They want you to be the best person you can be and sometimes a little tough love is what is best.
This accountability thing should be happening on a daily basis. This does not just apply to love of one's neighbor but in every little tiny crevice of one's life. To be happy, and I mean truly happy, we are called to love. If that means that accountability for your actions comes in and dampers what you think you want, well, so be it.
