By Jason Green

“Wouldn’t you agree, baby you and me, got a groovy kind of love…” Given the month, why not use a little Phil Collins to set the mood.

Some would argue based on the way much of society appears, “Looking for love in all the wrong places…” might be more appropriate. That’s really where a lot of folks land these days.

For many, love is something physical—expressed only in physical form through a sexual connection. That idea generally leaves folks feeling used, abused and thrown aside when the next best thing comes along.

For others, love is supremely emotional, which leaves people falling into the trap of thinking that since they don’t feel in love, they aren’t in love.

We spend a lot of time selfishly trying to make love look, feel and sound like what we see in the movies, read about in magazines, or hear sung about on iTunes. When it looks or feels differently than advertised, we wonder what we’ve done wrong.

I’ve been there. Long before I was serious about my relationship with the Lord, I tried to find a very selfish, earthly definition of love, then live by it.

The end result, I hoped, would be feeling better about me and a sense of personal worth. The problem was, and at times still is, my understanding of love was off base. It was skewed for this one reason: Love cannot be rooted in another human being, nor can it be spontaneously generated from our heart. Above all, love cannot be about us.

The only way love achieves its designed result is when it is experienced in completeness, which means it must be rooted in the supernatural/spiritual. Those two words are dangerous. A more accurate term would be rooted in scripture or God’s word.

In the Bible’s Gospel of John Chapter 1, we are told that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” Scripture tells us that the Word is the person of Jesus Christ.

Scripture tells us “greater love has no man than this—that He would lay down His life for His friends.” Furthermore, John 3 tells us that God so loved us—each of us—gave his son Jesus to die in our place, so that we might experience newness of life and eternity in heaven.

Sorry folks, that’s love, and without divine intervention, anything we try to create on our own is not worth a whole lot. That’s because real love is selfless in nature – not one of the more prevalent human character traits.

So, here’s what 1 Corinthians 13 says love, designed by God and distributed through His spirit to, in and through us is: “Love is patient and kind. It is not jealous, boastful or proud. It is not rude. Love does not demand its own way, nor is it irritable. It keeps no record of wrong (it forgives). It does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices when truth wins. Love never gives up, never loses faith, and always maintains hope. It endures in all circumstances.”

There’s something complete about the portrait that scripture paints. It’s actually a mirror, more than a portrait. It reflects the true character of God—a self-sacrificing God, deserving of our affection because of His great love for us. And, as a child of God, that’s the reflection of God the world must see from us: an authentic depiction of life-changing, life-giving love, heaven style.

The Rev. Jason Green is pastor of Mineral Springs Baptist Church. Look for another installment of his column in a future edition of The Clanton Advertiser.