Friday, December 23, 2011

You Have Confusion All Over Your Face; Let Me Wipe Off that Gray Area

 High school is rough. It's the most fun you'll ever have, but you have no idea who you are yet. Some don't yet know what they stand for, and others are busy standing up for the wrong things. We balance our Friday nights with our Algebra homework. We worry about which Senior football player looked our way more than we worry about what we made on that AP US History final. We try to figure out what we want to spend the rest of our lives doing while we try to decide what the next step is. There are so many schedules and balances. So many questions we ask ourselves.. Through all of this four year journey, however, we're lucky enough to stumble upon those who are like us. We meet those we call friends. Some stay longer than others, and some make more of an impact. Some friendships burst into flames, and we'll all go through "significant others". We'll worry about what they think of us, whether or not they'll kiss us, what that text message meant, and who they were with last night, and that will leave a question of its own as we get older: "What is love?"
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Love is a really slippery slope to travel on. It seems impossible to define, and a bunch of blurry lines and characteristics of a relationship that merge together to tie one into a relationship that hurts them more than they know how to do without. Love is a beautiful thing, but many mistake its identity for something it was never designed to be. The word is thrown under the speeding train of a breakup to somehow slow it down. It's used to break the legs of someone who wants nothing more than to run from a relationship that's no good for them. The word begs someone, who deserves more, to stay. It captures some in a net of confusion. For such a beautiful word, love can do some damage, right? If only we knew what love actually was. If only we could know, once and for all, what it takes to love someone. That way, there would be no more misuse. It would no longer be used as a lock on the Emergency Exit door of a relationship because love would have a form, a meaning. With a definition, there would be a way to know if love existed somewhere.
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When you want to yell at her siblings for fighting when you have a headache, love is kind. They don't understand exactly what you're going through the first time you explain why you're sad. When the movie he begs you to see with him never seems to end, love is patient. When the pretty cashier flirts with him at Wal Mart, love doesn't get jealous. When all you want to do is rub it in her face that you made an A on the test she failed, love doesn't brag. When she asks you to help her babysit a ton of kids on your free night, but you don't like kids, you do. Even when staying home in a much quieter environment would be more fun, you help her out because love isn't selfish. When she wants you to meet her family, you do. You aren't rude to her family; it's not making out in the parking lot in front of everyone because love isn't rude at all.  When she pinches you really hard, love doesn't get mad easily. Love doesn't keep track of how many times he's done wrong, or how many times she's slipped up. Sneaking around and encouraging things that aren't of Godly Desire? love doesn't delight in evil, but it sings with joy for the truth and good of Life. No matter what, love will always protect you through your weak, and strong, days. Love will never stop trusting you, even when you've messed up. When you feel hopeless, love never stops hoping, and it won't expire. Love doesn't give up, because love never fails.
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The troublemakers that try to control everything, the cynics that are always talking, and those drama queens who think they know everything will all disappear; they won't matter. When this happens, this perfect love, all of the imperfect things vanish into thin air. Any heartbreak of the past, any wrong someone's done to you, won't matter at all. In fact, it'll disappear, because when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. Love isn't easy, but even when it gets to be really hard I think that these are the things that are most important to keep. Looks are nice; musical talents are a wonderful way to pass the time, but The Creator of Love defined love for us. Why would you base love off of worldly ways? Why would one settle for less than what The One Who Knows Everything knows you need? Why settle for a blurry line when a clear line leads to less heartbreak?