On Sunday, Vince talked about true love: It's a response, it's a choice, it's an action, and it's a challenge. Last night at the teen small group, we watched the first video in the 40 Days of Love sessions, and Rick Warren went over some similar stuff.

A major point that both guys emphasized was that Love should be our Ultimate Goal. It's what we should shoot for every single day of our lives. It doesn't matter what we say, believe, or do, if these things aren't done in love. 

So this made me think things over a little bit.

Generally speaking, I think I do okay in the loving others department, but I realize that often when I am being "loving" to people I am actually just being "nice." But "nice" and "loving" are two different things. 

Because when I really think about people who upset me, try my patience, lie, hurt the people I love, hurt lots of people in general, or even have the nerve to do something like drive a little too slow in front of me when I'm on my way to the grocery store, I'm not so loving. In fact, I'm not even "nice." I get ornery, grumpy, bitter, mean, all sorts of unpleasant things. 

That's kind of discouraging. I mean, I know I should love people, but I don't. And I don't like that. Paul says it well in Romans 7: 19 and 20: "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."

But here's the good news, which was another hinging point Vince and Warren spoke about as far as Love goes: It isn't up to us. We are sinners and we sin, but Jesus died for us, and the Holy Spirit still works in us. We rely on God to love others. Our ultimate goal is to love: Love God, and Love Others. But we can only do this through God.

So yeah, I'm not so good at loving people a lot of the time, and this is not good. But that makes sense. Anyone can love people who are easy to love. It is only through Jesus that we can love the way He wants us to. It is only through God that we can make love our life goal. Through God, we can have perfect love.