Agape

I got this post from my dear friend Grace's blog. Read it here

This post hit me pretty hard. All of these points are great but numbers 1., 2., 3. and 10. bring that little twinge when I read them.

These are the things we learned from C.S. Lewis about the fourth love, agape love.

1. The secondary things in life will always be vying to be the first things, they will continually let us down and continually work to attract us.

2. Do not love God just because He is safe to love.

3. Contrary to popular thought, loving God does not keep us from sorrow, sometimes there's heartbreak involved.

4. Agape love has nothing to do with our feelings towards him, he loved us first.

5. Agape love is utterly disassociated with need.

6. God gives us agape love and gives us the ability to love with agape love.

7. Agape love is different in that we don't hunger for it, we hunger for the natural loves, but we do not hunger for agape love.

8. We want to be desired, to be delighted in, we want to fulfill and satisfy the needs of someone else - but when love has nothing to do with us and isn't dependent on our worth at all, we don't want it as much.

9. "Need men less, love men more."

10. "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."