Can Love be Pending?
By Bo Sebastian
Is Love something that is ever pending?
I have a friend who recently said, “love you,” soon after we met. A knee-jerk reaction made me respond with the like.
As a friend, I didn’t think much of it. At church, we tend to say we love each other all the time, and no one thinks much of the sentiment there either.
But when it comes to intimate relationships, when someone says “love you” too soon, we think about running, or is this the appropriate amount of time to be saying such words? But aren’t we called to love everyone? Especially, those who care about us intimately? Even more so, than people we barely know?
So, my next question is saying: I’m “IN LOVE” AND “LOVE YOU” the same thing? and can we just love someone as a friend and have the “be in love” part be pending? upon deeper relationship.
The answer, of course, is yes! In English, love just has too many meanings. In the Greek, there are words for casual love, friendship love, and intimate love. In the English language we aren’t so lucky. We have to ascribe prepositions and adjectives that help us define the universal word, to make it more special, otherwise it will fail in its interpretation.
Everyone has had the clumsy “love you, too, buddy,” response when you just wanted to hear, “I am so in love with you, and I have been for the past year.”
The word love is the most awkward word in the English language. We throw it around it like it is NOT something special. Can’t we just come up with another word that really means that we are head over heals, heart-screaming with joy, jumping up and down, in love?
If you have some suggestions, let me know….
