What is Love?

I am serious. What is love?

Generally we all want love
Specifically we yearn to be loved
We usually strive for love
To be in love
To feel love
To be loved

Is love the answer?

How do I know for sure?
How do we know for sure?
How do you know for sure?

If love is the answer,
we should be able 
to prove love

Love should be confirmed, 
beyond the shadow of doubt

If love is our goal, 
how do we know 
when we have arrived?

Have reached the zenith 
of human feelings

The pinnacle of total 
personal fulfillment

Saturated satisfaction 
of the body

Satiated peace in 
our hearts 

Such an egotistic opinion 
of our own power

I don’t think so

Do you? 

02/14/00 Hotel in Memphis

The Journey’s Challenge

How did I know?
How was I to understand?

The ultimate 
human challenge

I thought the 
greatest challenge was, 
"success in the business world"

That is where you 
seriously test a person

Winning the deal
Beating the competition
Triumphing over aversion
Grabbing the prize sought 
by so many 

If not business, the ultimate 
challenge would be 
"gaining great wealth"
 

Money for all of your wants
Money to do anything you wanted
Wealth to help yourself 
and also others

Money for wants you don’t 
even though you have yet 

Or maybe the ultimate 
challenge is to be,
"the best athlete in the world"
 

To run faster than anyone else
To run farther than everybody
To be stronger
To be quicker

To be the greatest human 
physical specimen alive

 Earlier in my life I thought 
I knew the ultimate challenge
 

Having faced and overcome major 
challenges in my life’s journey 
Having occasionally failed, 
but always giving wholly of 
my heart and soul 

I finally learned the ultimate 
human challenge is “Love”

I have loved with all 
my heart and soul

I have committed to succeed 
at the challenge of loving fully
 

Compared to my old self, 
I have done pretty well
 

Looking at my new life, 
I am doing very well  

Compared to love’s challenge, 
I am barely out of 
the starting gate 
 

Love’s challenge is infinite
 

Every seemingly great step forward 
uncovers new horizons of love
We discover layers and layers of 
love previously unknown to us
 

We can attempt to scale 
the mountain of love
We will never arrive at the 
pinnacle of love by ourselves
 

Master of the journey of love?
 

Jesus Himself

Jesus is Love

Love

The only human challenge 
where we fail, but 
"are saved"  


07/05/2002 Driving to Mom's 
from Omaha airport

  Waves of Love

Love breaks over us
Crashes against our self sufficiency
Laps against our self determination
Flows directly through our self pride

 Love breaks over us
Surrounds us entirely
Engulfs us completely
Floods our human senses
Extinguishes smoldering hate 

Love breaks over us
Washing away pain
Washing away struggle and despair
Cleansing our life
Purifying our soul 

Love breaks us
Destroying us to save us
To save us from sin
So, to live in eternity

03/31/02 St Paul's Church, 
Agoura Hills, CA

Falling in Love

I will always remember you sharing 
your first feelings of love

You didn't know what was happening, you said
The warm feeling of molasses
covering your entire body confused you.
It stimulated your senses
Awakened your heart
Captured your soul 

You were kind of funny
Really somewhat clumsy
Like a toddler on wobbly legs
Like a teenager growing too fast
Unsteady in your new walk of love

You had so many questions
Looking for answers 

Why do I feel this way?
Will I always feel this way?
Have you felt this way before? 

Why do I feel I want to
crawl inside you? 

08/20/99. Swedish Hospital 350AM.
Two days later my wife Arlene died from colon cancer.
I will never forget her look of love.

Life, Practically Speaking

How do we survive in this 
hectic, tipsy world?

Many people feel we need to be 
practical, practically speaking
Practical to stabilize 
our frenzied lives

Practical to remain consistent 
among constant change
Practical in the face of 
loss or great reward

What does practicality mean?

People may say, 
“Considering with understanding
what is safe, determined action"

What does the Dictionary say?

The Dictionary says, 
“To be sensible and practical”
“To have common sense”
Basically, to have 
“Sensibleness”

I say,
“Practicality is death on earth”

Why do I say this?

Because people associate
practicality with the mind

A careful thoughtful process
Detailed identification 
of viable alternatives
Practically speaking,
"of the mind”

However, I say!

We cannot live by 
practicality alone
We cannot exist 
“by the mind”
We will think our 
way into oblivion

We cannot survive
“by the mind”, 
practically speaking

Our survival needs Love
Our existence demands Love

The problem, 
“love is not practical”
Love comes from the heart
Love comes from deep within

What is the opposite of love?
"It is not hate” as many 
have surmised 

The opposite of Love is, 
“practicality”

Love is to “worship everyone”
Actually to "love all living things"
To "love ourselves without guilt"

Nevertheless we learn quickly, 
love is not practical”

In reality, 
Love hurts
Love grows
Love wanes
Love radiates

However, love is authentic
To live, give yourself to love
To understand this is to survive
Accepting love is the only answer

Receive Love
Nourish Love
Live love

With love we are on the path of life, 
practically speaking

The path to survival
The passageway 
toward infinity 

Accept love and you 
will reach eternity
Believe in love and you 
will arrive at Heaven’s gate

Think practically and 
you will slowly die
Live practically and
you  are already dead 

Hold love in your heart 
and you will live, 
"practically forever"
 

02/27/00 Coal Creek Chapel

 I Know the Way

I know the way now
Strength from my good heart
Truly released to help
Under-Reflected beauty of love 
in our soul

I don’t have the answer,
just realizing this as I write

We will not know the 
answer on earth
The answer to: 

What is Love?

Why?

Because love is: 
So exquisite
So magnificent
So spectacular
So utterly profound

 Do we really believe love could
be manufactured on earth?

There is no earthly reason 
or explanation of love

Do you actually think that 
we could create love?

Such an almighty view 
of our capabilities 
standing love 
for each other

Love shows the way
It cannot fail
It must not fail

Love is our last chance
To help ourselves
To save ourselves

Love is mankind’s 
prescription for salvation

Love is the way

Why have we forgotten?

11/05/98 Flight Seattle 
to White Plains, NY

Love, The Answer 

You can't describe love
when you can't see it

You can't identify love
even when you feel it

Love is so unrestrained 
it overwhelms us

We fail in all attempts
to describe love

Why?
Because we are love

How does a person 
describe "themselves"?

All attempts fail or
are wildly distorted

Because we are love 
we must have been 
created by love

Only the creator could 
describe the love involved

Only the creator would 
have the words


04/05/03 Flight Newark to Seattle

How do I tell you?

How do I declare my love?
A love radiating
from within
my soul 

Love consumes me
You are my truth and my peace
You are my wings and my rock
You are my inspiration
and my beacon 

You shine the way for
my life’s journey

Do you feel my love?
The truth of it?
The depth of it?
The eternity of it?

Only Heaven’s gate
will confirm
 

12/19/02, For Peggy, Christmas 2002