Lovestruck

    It's funny how such an essential thing as love is the probably the hardest to understand. We need it more than we need water, but yet you can never perfectly define it; and we certainly don't understand it as much as we claim to. It's a lot like lightning, actually.
    Did you know that modern science still doesn't understand how/why lighting even exists? We of course know what it is, and we know its effects (and side effects) on weather, humidity, climate, electronics, and other things, but we don't know how it happens or why. We just don't. We have theories, we have folklore (THOR!); we even have measurements and data showing what happens. We can even replicate it in a lab. Yet, we cannot, with the combined knowledge of the histories of science, global climates, and freaking NASA know how or why lightning exists. Yet in the time it's taken you to read until here, lightning has struck around 300 times around the world. And that's just lighting strikes; not even the majority of lighting that lasts for minutes on end bouncing around in the clouds. Striking the earth more than 5 times a second, it's probably the most common force of nature we experience in our lives. It's a lot like love, actually.
    We spend most of our lives trying to figure out the how's and why's of love only to come up short. How could I possibly love that person? Why doesn't she love me? There seems to be no formula, no definite definition, no rhyme or reason to any of it. It happens a lot more than 5 times a second all around us, but let's face it: most of the time we don't know how to handle it. So what if we focused on the what? Because if we at least have some idea of what it is, maybe the why's and how's would just fall into place.
    But then, we have to be careful where we look. Because what some people will tell you is love is certainly not. And what some will tell you is just kindness, or mercy, or laughter is just unaware of how much love they are capable of giving. Paul defined what it is beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13 (how many of you just thought of a wedding), and I'm not going to quote the whole thing here because I want you to find it and read it. Really read it though. Because his explanation of the what of love, when fully considered, could perhaps be the most beautiful thing you could ever hear. Because when you flip that little switch to live exactly what love is, the why's and how's are not only revealed, but they become synonymous with the what of love. Go, live, love, and find out for yourself.
    I love lightning, and I don't care if I can't explain to you why.