Love at Last Sight: Season 10

Upwards

This revolutionary Agape concept is deliberate, radical, rational and coherent. Its height is its direction upwards towards a Creator who deserves a love with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind in response to His undying and sacrificial love. This upward love motion is not just one towards an impersonal life force, a chauvinistic deity or a cosmic energy. It travels in the direction of a loving God who knows every unlovable thing I have ever done but still loves me the same and keeps loving when His creation refuses to respond. This is the highest mind measure of love.

Outwards

Its breadth is its direction outwards towards others within your own love community; those capable and willing to respond to your love by default. Those who have placed arms around you, who will place arms around you and who you can place your arms around without a second thought. This transverse love motion is possibly the easiest to grasp and measure with the mind. It travels in the direction of a loving commune of people mutually responsible for one another. This is the least demanding mind measure of love.

Inwards

Its depth is its direction inwards; a healthy, non-patronising love for oneself. It is not selfishness, self-centredness or narcissistic egocentricity, but a necessary foundation for a sense of self-worth, self respect, self-esteem and personal value that permits us to place value on others. Its direction of travel is really inwards and outwards as we love ourselves so we can love our neighbours as ourselves. This is the most convenient mind measure of love.

Towards

Its dimension of length is Agape in the long haul. Its direction is tangential and confrontational. This longitudinal dimension of love is in motion towards our enemies, haters, persecutors, detractors. Like the Jew in Auschwitz who audibly forgives the Fuhrer and Himmler just before being shot alongside hundreds of others in front of the mass grave they have dug with their own hands. Like the raped 21 year old who forgives the hormone driven beast who took her virginity. Like the abandoned son who forgives his absentee father. Like the widow who forgives the drunk tanker driver who ran over her husband and 2 year old. Like the innocent disfigured King hanging shamefully on a cross in nerve wracking pain from unspeakably inhumane torture who still forgives the guilty orchestrators of his gruesome death. This is the most difficult mind measure of love.

Love is architectural in its construct. Definite in its dimensions.