This is a huge topic, love and life.  But I am not sure if there are many, if any, that are more important.  Therefore, this is my attempt to give some thoughts as to how important it is in how we live our daily lives. 

Most everyone gives at least lip service to the subject of love.  Everyone has their definition, ranging from how they feel about another person to sex to a lifeforce all its own.  But are all of these definitions accurate and why is it important to address?  The answers are huge, and far to big to give entirely in one short blog post.  But, since love is something we all encounter in our every day loves, no matter how applied, it is worth the effort to work through.

To start, I will give some definitions of love.  It seems that love has taken several different turns, and is applied in the area of romance, family, pride, and ownership and many others: 

Romance-- man loves woman, woman loves man, man loves man, woman loves woman.  As such, there is a "chemical" bond between these people, and they long to come together and be together.  That whole sappy feeling we all know is what identifies this one.  It has now been opened to any other person with whom one feels such a connection.

Family-- the love of family is different.  It involves a respect and a longing for other members of one's family.  The love a parent has for his or her children, for example, or the love of a brother to a sister.  This type of love is not romantic, but no less real.

Pride-- if one loves his country, for instance, he feels a great pride in living there, or by being a member of a given team or community-- like a soccer team, or a church, or a place of employment, or a school.  Again, this is not romantic, but we all have or have had such associations.  We enjoy and want to be a part of it and be within the community.

Ownership-- similar to pride, but directed more to objects, like "I love the teddy bear I got when I was just a child," or "I love my car."  This can also be an activity.  Again, we long for the presence or interaction with the given object or activity.

This is a quick description of society deems "love".  But is this really love?  I am not convinced it is.  They all can seem like love, to be sure, but love is something different, though it can show itself in each of the above.  Why aren't these love, though?  They are not love because love involves sacrifice and submission.  True love gives, and does not take.  The majority of these take, they are for our own gratification.

True love gives.  True love is powerful, and it is selfless.  True love is best exemplified through Christ, but how do we know when we are in that state?  This is a tough question to answer, but nonetheless it is important to keep in mind.  If love is selfless, it must follow that we put action behind it.  True love then manifests itself through serving others.

Serving others is the key.  Love is powerful, to be sure, no matter how defined, but its misuse causes one to look inward, rather than outward, to serve.  When one is taking, or focused on taking, it is easy to forget the larger picture and ignore everyone and everything else.  Look around at the world, and what is pushed, then look at how people tend to act when pushed.  There is a distinct  pattern of selfish actions and reactions, evidenced all around us.  Yet, love is still thrown out there as important.  We see commercials about loving cars, loving kitchen products, our hair, money, and down the line.  Even love between people seems something to be relished by the one doing the "loving".  We're to get something out of it, and not give something.  This love is demonstrated by fawning over the object, or by bettering the neighbor, or getting a rush.  Nothing is presented about us sacrificing a thing.  Then  you look at the news.  What questions are asked and what angle is taken?  Almost always, they seek to get a reaction of the person that has them look and act inward.  The idea of self if prime, and nothing is given to sacrifice.

But that is not anything new, many recognize this trend, and many find it troubling.  But it is the idea behind it that drives it: love, love of self, love of all things except others.  And this is a dangerous slope to be on, because without sacrificing yourself to others, we are all on a crash course to destruction.  Marriage is impacted because that high we all have when initially "in love" fades.  That excitement disappears, and so does the ideal match with the spouse: the self focused then decide to leave, breaking a marriage and many other relationships involved.  Pride and ownership: when something breaks or is lost or becomes "obsolete" we must go out and get something new, never achieving happiness; or if rejection from the community occurs, or somehow broken, we break out in anger and are devastated.  All of this results in destructive consequences, and we seem to be on that path more and more.

Why, then, is sacrificial love different?  Why does serving another mean anything different?  Because by sacrificing, by serving, the focus is outward.  We are not attached to that which makes us happy, but we seek to lift others up.  This is not to say we cannot indulge our own happiness, but it is to say that our own happiness should come next.  The amazing part is that our own happiness will indeed rise if we take this approach.  We won't want to indulge ourselves!  But it is impossible to know this by watching or reading anything the world presents.  Nonetheless, this is the best way to achieve happiness and cooperation.  By serving others we lift up all.

Imagine the power if all took that point of view?  What a different world we would live in, and it all flows through a better application of love.