I Want to Know What Love is

In the Fall of 1984 Foreigner released a song titled "I Want to Know What Love is". This song, regardless of your age, or genre preference, is one of the most recognized songs of all time. It has deep meaning to people at various stages of life. Whether you are seeking a spiritual experience, going through a tough time emotionally, struggling with growing older, or simply searching for acceptance, this song will allow you the meditative time to reflect.

I am going to use this song title as a metaphor to making sense of a love that is so hard to find. I want to know what love is, I want you to show me. Set aside what you may think is the obvious. I am not writing about physical relational love, I am writing about love of humanity. With so many tools at our disposal, we can build bridges or tear them down, all with the stroke of our fingers across a keyboard. What we say matters oh so much, yet we show little reverence and patience with our words before we spit them out. Several months back I wrote a blog about being a fountain, not a drain. The goal in my writing was for the reader to realize and have the wisdom to know which they were. That holds true in our quest for love. To have and feel the truest depths of love it is important to know that the universal creator is the creator of all NOT just some.

Existentially, we were created and exist for the purpose of love. Take a little time to look around. What you will see is a world so much more colorful than most people desire to see. All to often we paint with broad strokes of black and white, leaving out the beauty that surrounds us. I too have a deep desire to know what love is and I hope you take the time to show me. I want to see, express, and expose the beauty that dwells in all of creation. Yet for it to be expressed and exposed there has to be someone else that sees it too. We do not have to see life through the same lenses for love to exist, we simply have to understand and believe that we are part of something so much more amazing than we have allowed ourselves to believe to this point. What if loneliness, depression, sadness, darkness, or even bitterness could be resolved just by showing that genuine love for humanity exist.

Can you imagine if we extended an act of kindness and love to everyone we come in contact with? That simple act alone would facilitate exponential love into perpetuity. BUT, so to does an expression of indifference or hate. You choose which emotion you would like to the world to share. I understand that through social media, news outlets, gossip, etc, that it seems as though the world in which we live is hopelessly devoted to self destruction. With that attitude it will be difficult for love to find a way. Consider when you are about to say something negative on social media that you pause, walk away, or do something that allows your emotions to calm down. There is no need in participating in behavior that keeps the negativity growing when you can say, do, or post something positive instead. I think it is amazing that we can choose to show what love is.

Imagine this, what if we allowed The Creator to love others through us. What a gorgeous day it would be. It doesn't take religious affiliation or church attendance to let The Creator's love shine through. It takes a belief that your life and my life has a greater purpose of love that is still waiting to bloom. Yes, I want to know what love, and yes I still want you to show me. I have no need nor desire to see or be a part of hate or indifference towards people or groups I do not agree with. Where love is, hope isn't far behind. I realize that we all get our feelings hurt at certain times. Sure people disappoint us as well as we disappoint others, yet in these times it is better to calm down before saying or doing something you will later regret. Remember a moment of patience in a moment of anger will save a life time of regret. Using social media as a bully platform, or to expose someone that has harmed you, or to agree with someone else's negative opinion of another is a terrible way to allow love to grow.

I hope that you too want to know what love is, and I hope you want me to show you. I promise to do my best. I will strive each day to find goodness in all of creation. I will not seek to expose that in which I disagree, instead I will stand up for the greatest gift we have been given, the gift to show another human being that their life matters. No doubt, I will fail many times in my quest to be an instrument of love, however even in those times I will allow patience to be my guide.

Here is the opening lines from that beautiful song "I Want to Know What Love is":

I gotta take a little time, a little time to think things over
I better read between the lines, in case I need it when I'm older

Now this mountain I must climb, feels like the world upon my shoulders
Through the clouds I see love shine, it keeps me warm as life grows colder

In my life there's been heartache and pain
I don't know if I can face it again
Can't stop now, I've traveled so far, to change this lonely life

I want to know what love is, I want you to show me
I want to feel what love is, I know you can show me

I hope you will give this blog and these lyrics a little time in your life. Hopefully together we can change how people view this wonderful world in which we live. Let's prove that love is a powerful force, I know, it starts with me, and I am ready for the task ahead. 

Peace, love and happiness

Dale Childress