Love's Labour's Lost

I think people are forgetting how to love. Sometimes it feels like the only worth I have to people, even those I consider my good friends, is based on my achievements, accomplishments, and academic or monetary potential. This is what I like to call "friendship credentials". What's worse is I find myself qualifying my friends (or potential friends) the same way. It's an easy way to evaluate whether someone can be beneficial to you as a friend. As if people were assets, or objects, or possessions. How dehumanizing! That's not love! Friends aren't positions that can just be replaced like a burnt-out lightbulb! People are people for heaven's sake! Love is more than actions. It's more than words, however cliché that is. It's a spiritual unity, however silly that sounds. Whatever is spiritual is eternal!

We live in a compatibility focused world. People have to be "compatible" with us to deserve our time and attention, I guess. Nobody thinks about what they need to do to be compatible themselves. Whatever it takes to escape personal responsibility. If I don't get along with someone, it's obviously their fault. Right? We are commanded to love everyone. I don't think that means that we're commanded to just distantly be fond of humans. Jesus Christ doesn't love me because I happen to fall under the same genus. He also doesn't love me based on my credentials (thank goodness). There's something more. What is it that he knows about me that lets him love me perfectly? Well that's just it: He doesn't just "know about" me, he knows me! With a little bit of thought about who we really are, it's easy to understand that we are something more than we give ourselves credit for. Are we able to see that in each other. Wouldn't that be the ultimate compatibility? Who isn't compatible with someone who feels personally responsible and motivated to really know you enough to really love you regardless of your credentials? I sure hope I am. Is there anyone who doesn't deserve that from me? can I be compatible with anyone? Anyone who has that same motivation, at least. In that case, any other deterrent can't be anything but superficial. I want to be the type of person who can be a friend with anyone, not just a replaceable friend, not a place holder.