You have tried to show me and my people many times in many ways that love is the essence of life. And all too often, we have sorely missed the point. We have come to love one another only as a Christian duty and not because we truly loved. We have often learned to appreciate one another only functionally, and we cringe at the idea of loving one another deeply and relationally in a way that may not yield the most effective returns to our preoccupation with efficiency.

Even in love, we have sought to be efficient. Wasting time with one another has become but a waste of time. Each moment spent together has become an enterprise of equipping one another for the purpose of furthering our already humungus corporation. We manipulate others into thinking that we truly care. The reality is that we demonstrate love only as an avenue for the attainment of a desired means; to motivate them to love us back so they are compelled to fulfill our ambitions. The perceptive ones see through our motivations and are repelled at our lack of sincerity.

For once, I desire to learn to love like you. I want to love out of the nature of your being in me; to love simply because I want to love, not because I must love. To waste time with others simply because they are worth my time. To love them simply because they are who they are. To be Christ to them simply because I share your dreams for their lives. Not because I want them to become contributive members of my church community. Not because they have something that I want. I want to love them simply because my God is love.

If love is the essence of life, then teach me how to love...so that I may live.