Love is an active virtue

Father touched on this in his sermon last Sunday, and I thank God that it actually stayed with me. He explained that feelings of love without action are just that-- feelings. I can't count how many times I've passed a homeless person and FELT great sympathy, and went on my merry way. As if the sympathy I felt was just as good as a hot meal, or a simple offering of my pocket change.

Another example... a lot of my friends live quite a distance from me, just because of where life took us after high school and college. I think of my friends quite a bit. I wonder what they're doing in their lives and how they're getting along. But, my THINKING of them doesn't make our relationship stronger. Because if I truly LOVED them, I'd put that love into action and actually call them and chat, send a card, surprise them with a visit.

Slothfulness keeps my "nice feelings and thoughts" from becoming acts of love. Negative feelings also keep me from putting love into action: "They don't want to be bothered by me," "I'd just annoy them," "They have tons of friends as it is..."

This post isn't about my friendships or insecurities, though. This post is about challenging myself to stop "thinking" and DO something. To stop saying, "Gee, I'm sorry about your problems, I'll pray for you" and then forget to pray. To help someone who's struggling with their burdens, and say "Hey, can I help you with that?" instead of conveniently turning a blind eye.

Well... those are some of the things swirling in my head. If love is an active virtue, then I am certainly out of practice (if ever I was "in practice). Sympathy I can do. "Feeling bad" in my corner of the world, I can do. Offering to pray for someone, and then forgetting to, I can do. I want to be done with that.

In other news, last night my folks and my bro came over for dinner. I made some black bean soup... I added a few too many spicy spices, so everyone ate lots of bread with the soup, and ended up full after eating half a bowl (except my mom, who downed the stuff!). But, spiciness aside, it was a good meal, and it was so great to have company over for the evening. We talked for a long time, and it was just a very relaxing evening. Here's the link for the recipe, if you're interested! It's so easy to make... I didn't add the right spices, though, because they were out of these particular ones at the store, so that's why my improvisation turned out too spicy. But it tastes great, I added rice to the soup and it was very hearty. The best part? Leftovers!