Never Been Kissed

In English class today, my professor asked us to list ten words we associate with our first kiss.

I raised my hand bashfully. "What if you've never been kissed?"

A few people chuckled in the back of the class.

"Uh..." My professor sat with a look of consternation on her face. "Then... list ten words describing what you think your first kiss will be like."

I was stumped. A "romantic" relationship with the opposite sex is something I've always avoided... and ignored. Sure, when I was in junior high I imagined myself being kissed by the hunkiest guy in the youth group (who was also the youth pastor's son). And yes, I do enjoy a romantic movie now and then. (My personal favourites are when the male party dies a sudden, tragic death and the female party lives the rest of her life in celibate sainthood... wait... have I ever seen a movie with that plot? No. Guess not. However, those are the stories I make up.) But then I step back and have to laugh at the "rose-coloured glasses" the world looks through at "love." According to the world, love is really nothing more than a hormonal imbalance... or indigestion.

I like the way 1 Corinthians 13 describes love...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (verses 4-8a, 13)

In his book, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Philip Keller says this: "Now love in a scriptural sense is not a soft, sentimental emotion. It is a deliberate act of my will. It means that I am willing to lay down my life, lay myself out, put myself out on behalf of another. This is precisely what God did for us in Christ. 'Hereby percieve [understand] we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us' (1 John 3:16). The moment I deliberately do something definite either for God or others that costs me something, I am expressing love. Love is 'self-lessness' or 'self-sacrifice' in contradistinction to 'selfishness.'"

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

- Matthew 22:37-40