Love and In Love: the desire to love
L ately, I’ve been thinking about the difference between love and the desire to love. Love, as you know, is commanded in the Bible and yet, we often think of it as a feeling. So, I thought that the best way to describe this is that there is love and there is the desire to love. Most people, when they talk about love, they’re really talking about the desire to love and to be loved. To use more familiar terminology, they are talking about being in love. Let me give you an example. A young man has met a young woman. He calls her on the phone. He sends her flowers. He takes her to a nice restaurant. But does he love her? Let’s try another one. A woman is in the nursing home and seldom remembers what has happened five minutes ago, but a younger woman comes to see her two or three times a week. She makes sure the nurses are taking care of her. She combs her hair. She spends time talking to her, even though she knows the woman will tell other people that she was never there. Does she love h...