questions about love?

I am taking this class here at Moody that is all about discussing challenging topics. I must say that I have never been challenged in such a great way to think about why I believe what I believe. As it turns out, I am not sure of a lot of things that I say I believe. There is no reason or background let alone research to back up what I say. I simply believe because...well, I don't know why.

The book we are reading challenged us to evaluate why we love. Do we truly love a person because they encompass a great human being? This book suggested that the reason we love and the attributes that we look for are really our search for God. We do not strictly love the person because God is love and we have Him written on our hearts. It is true that we may not know that we are searching for something as specific as God, but we do know how we want to be loved: unconditionally and whole-heartedly. There are so many problems with humans and our imperfect love is one of those problems. Why do we continue to pursue human love when we know it is full of flaws? I don't really have the exact answer to this.

However, if God made us in His image, then we have the ability to reflect God in our very essence. Maybe I love someone not because I want their love, but because I want perfect love. I don't know if I believe that statement, I am still struggling to find out what it is or what amount of God we can reflect in our lives. I believe that we can love people, but do we love them specifically or do we love the way they reflect how God loves us? It probably sounds like I don't believe I could love a woman, but I know that this is not true. I am simply trying to figure out why we even WANT to love another human. I have no doubt that God is weaved into our love for others. I believe that we can love God by loving others. So who are we really loving, the individual or God himself, or maybe even both? I would think that if we do love both in truth, then God would need to be loved more than the individual.

Maybe I am thinking myself in circles, but hey, it's my blog. I am just trying to sort things out. Maybe love is separated into human love and a love for God. They are both important then, and I think that God trumps all other forms. However, I like thinking that my love for others actually points to my true love for God and that I could actually love that person for the way God made them. It seems more personal. But, I still think about it.