Selfless Love

Love is patient.
Love is kind.
It does not envy,
It does not boast,
It is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no records of wrongs.
Love does not...

Whoa whoa whoa. Hold up.

Love is not self-seeking? As in, love is not selfish?

Ouch.

That one hurt. At least for me it did anyway. 

It's easy to look at love as something that should benefit us. What's in this for me? What can I get out of this? What can this person do to meet my needs? What can this person do to fill my love tank? I want this person to do everything in their power to make me feel good.

I'll tell you one thing: Jesus made being selfless look REAL easy.

It's easy to get selfish. It's easy to look at the personal benefits and forget about other people involved. It's easy to forget that we are called to love selflessly and to put the needs of others on the front burner.

But when we are servants to others, when we love unconditionally, with no strings attached, no selfish gain in the matter, we are loving like Jesus loves. When we put our needs on the back burner and put forth everything we have into loving that other person, then we will start to see the love pour back to us.

When we get past ourselves and love selflessly, then we will begin to experience the purest, most incredible form of love that we were destined and created to experience.

And that makes love so incredibly worth it.