I can haz love?

"Substituting theoretical concepts for acts of love keeps life at a safe distance...a commitment that is not visible in humble service, suffering discipleship, and creative love is an illusion." --Brennan Manning

Last weekend was Malibu Leadership Weekend, with guest speaker Bob Goff. I could not attend due to a wedding (we'll get to that in a later post), but decided to read Bob's book Love Does instead to ease the pain. As the title suggests, it is a collection of stories in which Bob gives examples of taking risks and loving others in our everyday.

"Living a life fully engaged and full of whimsy and the kind of things that love does is something most people plan to do, but along the way they just kind of forget. God chooses ordinary people like us to make a difference by getting to the "do" part of faith. Love doesn't just keep thinking about it or planning for it. Love does."

Besides being a thoroughly entertaining read, the book hit me where it hurts; for a while the concept of "Love is a Verb" (cue DC Talk) has been really bothering me, mainly because I struggle immensely with it. As someone who enjoys reading, musing, and dialoging about all things that pertain to my faith in Christ, it is easy for me to feel like I doing fine in my walk with God because I do those activities quite a bit. There's nothing I love more than sitting out on my porch in the early morning and reading my devotional or some good ol' C.S. Lewis; I am so encouraged by exchanging words of truth with a friend over wine; This blog, for goodness sake!....these are all examples of how my faith may seem active and alive in my head, but I struggle translating what I know up *here* to something tangible felt by others *out there*.

A lot of that is my selfishness and feeling like my heart needs to expand a few sizes....this is something I've recognized for a few years now. But it also rests in the big R word....Risk.  It's difficult to be bold sometimes (as my blog post a few down are any indication). And it's been a mantra of mine this whole year--step out. take risks. trust.

Loving extravagantly is hard, especially when you get nothing in return. But what good is our faith, our regenerated hearts if other's cannot feel it and experience it in our actions?

In risk and sacrifice there is freedom and abundant life. I hope that you will show me grace as I try to work on "doing".

Babysteps.