Alright, since I've tags about love, I shall share my opinion. I did this expository for my english portfolio. My first expository in my whole life and I've been very hesitant about it. Shall share it nevertheless.

I love you. These three words continue to echo in my ear, especially since the passing of Valentine's week just recently. Many exchange these words, so much so that it could very well have been just another greeting. But what do people mean when they declare those words?

Whenever I think of love, I think about Jesus Christ. As a Christian, I believe that Christ, in dying on the cross to take away our sins displays the most perfect form of love. How many people would love you to the extent of dying for what you have done wrong? How many people never withdrew their love from you throughout eternity? Not to mention, God's love everlasting to the extent that I feel Him working peace and wisdom into my life even as I write.

Therefore, I believe that love is a measure of the willingness to sacrifice for the good of someone else. (However, by stating my above example, I am not limiting the expressions of love to a God-mortal relationship. I am just using that as my ideal of love, with applications amongst humans being possible.) I am not talking about sacrificing such and such commitment so that one may prioritize by taking into consideration what one most wants to do and therefore sacrifice extra time to do that very thing. I am talking about a sort of sacrifice related to the well-being of another.

Take marriage for example. Classic example of love. What is the couple committing themselves to by saying: "I will sacrifice my needs and wants to insure that you receive yours. We will travel this journey of life together with the Lord as our guide. With all my being, I pledge my love to you."[1] This person is talking about a sacrifice of a lifetime of time. One whole lifetime dedicated to each other, that is what couples are, or should I say supposed to, committing themselves to.

What with the increasing number of divorces, I question whether couples mean it when they take that vow. Is love going to be taken that lightly, that it would be turned into a reason for a momentary satisfaction rather than maintain its original essence of a sacrifice? I think I may have found the answer to my question.

"Love and obsessive- compulsive disorder could have a similar chemical profile. Translation: Love and mental illness may be difficult to tell apart. Translation: Don't be a fool. Stay away."[2] I quote from Lauren Shaler who wrote "Love: A Chemical Romance" in the National Geographic magazine. The article goes on to mention about how "love" will run out, how love is caused by a release of a certain hormone which increases our energy level, and how our body soon gets tired out by such a great use of energy. So, love is supposed to "run out"? Love is no more than an emotion that requires a great input of energy, after which the body soon gives up and the emotion disappears? I think not. Yes, sadly, love has been taken very lightly.

Perfect love involves an action. It is not just "Oh I'm feeling this passion for you and I shall do such-and-such things for you". True, love uses up energy, as all actions do. But this energy ought to be constantly topped up, either with a return of this love or through another that is abundant in such energy. I give, you give, both receive. In this way, pairs can keep up their relationship. I mean, you cannot give if you do not receive, and loving involves a giving of energy. Following this line of thought, I find that everyone needs to be loved, if not, one would become a very hard cold shell. Where else do you yourself get the energy to love?

Recalling the song "Where is the love?" by Blackeyed Peas, there is, in every human heart, a desire to love and be loved. Unfortunately, not everyone has the privilege of being able to find true love in the correct places, or to say the least, even understand the true meaning of love. Love is often associated with simple admiration, respect, or even the most juvenile forms of "love"--puppy love or crush. I find a clear distinction between "love" and "puppy love" or "crush". Clearly, as many would have been taught in school, that such juvenile infatuation is just a temporal feeling; a sudden increase of hormones, as psychologists would put it. The complication of these two words often lead to teenagers going through adolescence searching for love in all the wrong places and thinking they have found the perfect love when they have yet to do so.

When I get down to the examining the words "admiration", "respect" and "love", I find a thin line separating the boundaries in which these words can be most appropriately used. Admiration[3] refers to having a high opinion of someone; it is just an opinion. Respect[3] involves treating someone with care so that he/she would not be insulted by one's rudeness. Ideally, I think that these three expressions of the heart should go together. However, this may not always be the case and we must make that distinction before others misunderstand us.

Love, to me, holds a deep meaning and should not be used interchangeably with other words or used lightly as and when anyone feels like it. Saying "I love you" to someone seals a promise that ought not to be borne lightly. However, the change of the context in which certain words are used is not for me to control and I, as a student, cannot define societies' view of love. In spite of the many warped views of love, I believe that there are still great examples of true human love that abound in our midst today, too many for me to even begin listing. In conclusion, the next time you think you love someone, think about what you should expect out of your love. Love is not that simple a matter.

[1] Mark Shingleton. http://www.ultimatewedding.com
[2] Lauren Shaler. National Geographic. Febuary 2006.
[3] Definition largely influenced by Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, though careful thought on the author's part was carried out

I wrote this out of a flury. A flury of inspiration. Look at this piece from two points if you please. One, the meaning of love. Two, the writing style. Comment on both please.

As a direct response to the tags.

Kylie: I guess you can say that friendship is a sorta of love, or at least it should ideally be so. Friendship is a subset of love?

Royston: You speak of the ideal of love. But is love or "love" in this world always that ideal? Most certainly not.

Nic: Different forms of love? really? no worries, do begin listing them. General love as an affection.. hm.. that's how our society crafts (I can say dilute if I come from a cynical POV) it to be, though I believe that isn't the ideal of love. Cos affection (correct me if I am wrong) is kinda like a feeling. Sudden up in emotional levels..

You know something that I read in Romans 13:8-10 is that loving your neighbour is a fulfillment of the 10 Commandments. Cos if you love, you won't worship any other but God (cos you love Him), you will honour your parents, you won't covet, steal, murder, commit adultery etcetc. Interesting eh..

have you ever wondered why God loves us so much as to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross for OUR sins? I dunno man.. cos we're His creation? Cos He wants to have a relationship with us? I'm not too sure but I sure know it's real. I can't find help, strength, peace or salvation from anywhere else.

Nope, believe me, I've tried. I've wandered far, just as that guy testifying in Ps Jeanne Mayo's cd did. I've fallen hard, just as I was telling a friend of mine that the longer you hold a masquerade, the harder the fall after the mask falls out. And yet I have to come back to the place of saying that I'm sticking to God no matter what I feel. Cos love is a commitment, a choice, not a feeling. I think I've mentioned that in Watered Down. And after commitment to God, go up the next level to surrender.

let God's love fill you life! =)

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