Love of God calls for the best in each of us

In one of my classes, I had asked what the meaning of love is. A 16-year-old raised her hand and said that "love is when I receive phone calls from my boyfriend three times a day."

I proceeded to ask her how long she has known this boyfriend. "Two weeks," she said.

Oh, well.

Love at different stages of our lives can mean different things. For a grade-school student, love can mean getting seconds of a favorite meal. For some men, love can mean not being bothered when they come home after eights hours of working in the office. Some women will say love is when their husbands help them with chores at home. For many others, love can be acceptance, to be who you are -- quite difficult in this day and age.

Whatever your idea of love is, I hope you take a moment to look at the kind of love that God is asking of you during these times. The love that we dare to speak of in this day and age is the timeless love of God.

From the very beginning of time, God loved the world, and from its very existence he has chosen to lavish this love irrespective of us. Lavishing his love is about God pouring his mercy into the world.

That same love that he freely gave continued even when our first parents disobeyed him. He wanted to show us that his mercy is far greater than anything we could ever imagine and, at times, difficult to understand.

God's love for us does not fade. His love for us is enduring. It is not a love that abandons us when we are in trouble. Rather, God's love upholds and restores us when we are frail, when our lives seem to makes no sense and all our friends have abandoned us. It is then that the majestic hand of his love is made clear in our lives.

Often we wonder why God loves and dedicates so much of his time to us. It is simply because the mercy of the Creator is overflowing and knows no end. The love of the Creator inspires us to love other people, because God's love is also to be shared.

The love of God calls for the best in each and every one of us. It is a love that is asking of us to live the best life that we can live. When we don't feel God's love, it is not that he is absent. Rather, we are drifting away from that fountain filled with his divine love. What he is asking of us is to focus our attention on the divine love and mercy which flows from his endless fountain.

What are practical ways of bringing about God's love to people? Simply loving people without counting what we are going to gain from their friendship. Stop judging. Challenge people to be the best they can be. Remember, the prodigal son was not judged. He was welcomed with open arms into the loving embrace of his father, and that is why the change was enduring.

God's love also calls us to be honest with people when they are going astray. True love is not when we become complacent to mediocrity. It is not when we turn the other way in the name of wanting to be liked. It is about charity, which says that I love you that much to care.

Today you might be the voice someone is waiting to hear. You might be the voice that will bring someone out of a malaise. Will you care enough to love? Will you have the courage to make a difference even when it is not popular.? I hope your love is firm and overflowing. Be not afraid to be loved by God and God's people.

The Rev. Patrick Ike Nwokoye is associate pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral in Cape Girardeau.