To Love Is First

For a long time I'd been thinking that you had to love God, love your neighbor and then love yourself, in that order. That manner of thinking always puzzled me because I had never actually seen God, I hardly saw my neighbors, and when I looked in the mirror, on some days, I didn't even like what I saw there. Now I realized that this whole idea of love was to be viewed from a spiritual perspective, but it just wasn't easy to love a spiritual entity when I, having a human experience, didn't even love me. For quite a while, it all seemed too abstract to me. Then it finally dawned on me. If I learn to love myself, then everything else will probably fall into place.

I've always enjoyed the high that alcohol and drugs provided, but how could I love me and ingest substances that harm my heart, liver, lungs and other vital organs that God gave me to sustain my life, and to live it to the fullest. Food is a necessary form of nourishment, but how am I loving me when I constantly bombard my digestive system with substances that have no nutritional value whatsoever. I love running my mouth, but when I talk about and criticize other people of what value is it to my mental and spiritual well-being. After all, I'm the one who feels bad after disrespecting somebody else. I say I love the Lord, I say I love others, but how is that possible when I'm destroying the mind and body that God gave me, and then demeaning the character and reputation of those God put here for me to share the world with. I realized that it's impossible to like, let alone love me, if I'm going to do the things that aren't good for me to do. Then, if I ain't loving me, loving others as I love myself is entirely out of the question.

Now here's the kicker. Look back on your life and count the number of times you've heard something similar to the expression, "I love the Lord". Now add up the number of times you've heard "I love my wife or husband" (Yea, they're our neighbors too). After that add up the number of times you've heard or said something similar to this phrase, "I love me some me." Not often huh? Seems kind of selfish and self centered huh. Well, let me say this, if you want to love God, and to love your neighbor as yourself, how about learning to love you. When you get up in the morning, practice saying I love _________(put your name in the space). Then because love is an action word, start acting like it. Base everything you do, from that point till you go to bed at night, on doing only that which will make you a better person, physically, mentally, emotionally, and of course spiritually. It's probably not going to happen the first day, but with practice you'll find yourself liking and then loving you a little bit more day by day.

Now I know that I'm going to have my naysayers pushing the "Got to Love God First" card, and I say to all of you that I've tried both ways and the latter works best for me. I talked about my love for God, but in retrospect it was just talk because I didn't know how to love. In learning to love myself, and to treat myself better, I've learned how to love and treat others and, as a result, to Love God who is the One showing me how to love. So if you're there already and truly love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and you truly love your neighbor as you love yourself, then as Pastor John Hannah says..."God bless your ministry." If you're taking care of everything God entrusted to your care, are experiencing joy and peace, and are exhibiting kindness and self control, on a regular basis, then 'gon wit yo bad self.' But if you've had a hard time like me, do what I do. Work on loving you more and you'll be better able to love God and all your neighbors accordingly.

Whatever your choice, the objective is to love. How you prioritize it is not important; because in the final analysis, once you learn to love, you automatically become the LOVE that we've all been commissioned to share.

I'll holla...


To listen to the spoken version of To Love Is First click here.

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