Some people seem to fear love.
Love, they think, means that you never take a stand. Love means that you focus too much on grace and not enough on goals. Love means that you forget the rules, walk away from productivity, and maybe even walk away from God.
A friend said something last week that hit hard. “I’ve never met someone who’s life was more messed up -- or whose relationship was God got worse -- because they focused on love.”
That’s the thing. When you focus on love, everything else grows into its right place. Because love isn’t passive. Love isn’t selfish.
Love gives. Love pours out. To borrow words much wiser than mine, love is patient. Love is kind.
Love for myself means I will honor boundaries. I will wake up early and go to bed on time to take care of my body. I will find balance in the ways I eat. All because of love.
Love for my family and friends means I can show up and be fully present. It also means I can release them to their own beautifully messy lives without trying to “fix” it, knowing that they are held in a Love so much greater than mine.
Then I think of how love works in a business. And I think “love can’t be the driving force in running a business! What about numbers?! What about goals?! What about productivity?!”
Yet when I focus on those things, everything becomes stressful and uncertain and very, very weighty. If I focus on love, everything becomes full of joy. Making tasks in our CRM is an act of love--because I want to love that person by following up when I said I would. Sending emails and answering text messages promptly is a way to show love and care. Stopping to take a phone call isn’t an interruption, but a way to love the person in front of me.
Writing this post becomes love… because I am loving myself in taking time to reflect and wanting to love others by sharing how I am learning and growing.
Love.
Love rejoices. Love protects. Love trusts. Love hopes. Love perseveres.
Despite what we may think or the lies we can so easily believe, love NEVER fails.
