Prove Your Love

 DAILY VITAMIN

- Prove Your Love

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

I learned when I was a chap that people don’t care what you know, all they want to know is that you care. They don’t want the textbook type of love, they want the real life kind of love. The type that doesn’t just affirm itself in words but in deeds. And while this mustn’t always end with someone dying for another literally, it always does figuratively. Be it in priorities, in choices or in actions. Something must give, and it must give for the other to have.

You see, love must be proven not spoken. It’s an action emotion. It doesn’t want to be stayed within, it wants to sprout off with evidences. The truth is anybody can casually use the words “I love you,” but not many can take up the responsibility of love. Love has its burdens; many in fact. Paul tells us that it bears all things, envies not and never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). That means love makes us do what ordinarily our human nature may not agree to. Like forfeiting the last slice of pizza despite how famished you are so your wife can have something to eat as soon as she returns from work before dinner is served. That’s love; it embodies sacrifice, surrender and selflessness. 

Once in the university, during one of the Bible quizzes regularly organized by the fellowship, I was privileged to have won almost all of the prizes which were mostly books. Including one written by A.W Tozer. Glancing behind, I saw Esther the girl who came second place looking all sad, though she had a book or two in hand. But she really wanted that Tozer book most importantly. So I went over and handed it to her. The sudden change in her countenance was mind blowing. Let me give you a better illustration: it’s the kind you’d have if you won a billion dollar lottery today. She was so excited she was willing to give me two books in return. But it didn’t matter to me, seeing how lighted up she saw was the real victory for me, the real prize of the day. It was captivating, and that feeling I had from seeing her that way was worth almost a million bucks to me.

Now if that happened with someone I hardly knew at the time, I believe it’s something we should also constantly do for those we claim to love. Making them happy, radiantly glowing. Be it God or a fellow human. Because when we do love, we’ve got to love without limits. It’s the rule. Christ’s rule. The scripture says He loved them (loves us) to the end (John 13:1).

I once read a story as told by the popular football/soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo about how his best friend gave up the chance to get into one of the capital clubs academy just so he could. He said on the final day of selection, this friend of his kept giving him the ball so he could score as many goals as possible even when this guy was in a better position to score; and as a result he was picked. And now he’s one of the greatest of all time because one friend saw what the rest of the world couldn’t: greatness, though nascent, unkempt and hidden, but still greatness as never seen before. And he wasn’t afraid to pay the price to see it blossom.

That story to me is one of the best interpretations of what Jesus meant in our theme scripture other than what the Lord Himself did for us on the cross. 

Love needs to have evidences. That’s why Jesus said if you love me, obey me (John 14:15). It’s not enough to say I love God, I love my husband, I love my brethren in the faith. I love my friend. You’ve got to show it. You’ve got to present the fruit of that love in the open. Even if it means going out of your way to help them with a meal when you know they have none, or getting them a job at your workplace, or putting in a good word for them where you think they’d do well if taught enough, or by simply just being a source of strength in their times of sorrow even though you’re just as much in a similar situation. This is the kind of love that works. A love that isn’t selfish. A love that sees the other’s pain as its. A love that goes the extra mile to put a smile, or in some cases to keep it, on their faces. A love that has literal proofs. 

Hence, don’t just say you love them, whoever ‘them’ might be, show you do.