love is the movement

so this is a speech i made for speech class..and if you think it looks long,this is my revised, cut-back version because i was going longer than 6 minutes..so some ideas aren't as complete as i'd like, but i dont feel attempting to remember those thoughts.this is a pretty big challenge, and one of the main reasons i picked this topic wasn't to challenge other people, but to challenge myself. I'd like to think i love people for who they are, but looking back..i'm terrible at it. like, not just bad, but terrible. i'm horrible at just chilling with people and making them feel important or talking with them- in most cases. with some people, like my close friends, i'm fine, but if i'm the least bit uncomfortable with someone else, i just shut down. psh..just got done writing this and realized i had neglected a convo with someone i should have been talking to and helping out..can anyone say self-absorbed? so i probably need to heed my own words here more than you do. but i'll post it anyways..

What is Love? this age-old question has been asked by man since humanity's beginnings regarding that thing that keeps our world from slipping into a chaotic and destructive "every man for himself" state of mind. From the greatest philosophers to the least intelligent child, all have wondered what exactly is this thing we call love. First of all, though, to clear something up, the love I'm going to be talking about is a little different than what we usually think of when we hear the word "Love". This is not that warm and fuzzy feeling you get inside when that special someone comes running across a field of lilies with their hair blowing in the wind and angels singing in the background. While there are similarities between the two, I'll be focusing on the non-romantic form of love. we'll look at God's love for us, and how our lives should reflect that love, and I hope that I can challenge you all, and give myself a much-needed challenge , to be a more loving person and bring hope to a hurting world.
We've all heard it said before that "God is Love". After looking the Bible, this makes quite a bit of sense. the second most used word in the Bible, only behind variations of God and Lord, is love. Not "rules". not "punishment". but "love". if that doesn't convince you, this might. The all-powerful, all-knowing God decided to craft a world. His creation was made beautiful and pleasing to a perfect God, pretty high expectations. he started from scratch and built up an empire, only to see it be torn down and poisoned by sin. An all-powerful and just God could do whatever he wanted to with his now defunct masterpeice, and it would make sense for him to destroy it and start again. However, for some reason, he's stuck with us for thousands of years and given us a chance. He's been disobeyed, cheated and crossed more times than we can even think about comprehending. And yet, for some reason, instead of blowing us all to oblivion in an eternity of hell well-deserved, he completely goes against everything that would seem rational and just and sends himself down to earth as his son and does not just die for us, but burns for us. And even after all this, when we still refuse to turn back to him and instead continue further down the spiral, for some reason he just will not let us go. and that reason is love. there is no possible way that we could still exist without a God loving enough to do that, making it impossible to dismiss the fact that God is love. There is no greater love than the love that has been shown to us by our loving and faithful Savior.
so What does this mean for us Christians, striving to live to please God? Many people view Christianity as a group of people trying to follow an endless list of rules that they can't keep anyways. However, people seem to forget how simple Christianity is. Muslims have 5 rules they have to follow. We have two. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself". these two sentences are the fulfilling of the law. Like i said before, a call to love is repeated over and over again in the Bible, leaving it pretty obvious what God expects of us. If we truly model our love after the love shown by our Father in Heaven, we will in the process be loving him with all our hearts and doing only the best for our neighbors here on earth.
So really, how can we put this love into concrete terms? What do we have to do to truly love God and our neighbor? 1 Corinthians 13 (commonly known as the love chapter) states "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". That does not put a solid and set definition on love, but it does give us a good clue as to what it does. It is like the wind: you cannot see it itself, you only see the effect of it on the things around it because of what it's doing. Love, then, is more than just an emotion; it is a verb, requiring action. Although it may be based on a feeling, it is not true love unless there is outward effort reflecting that love.
we say we love each other, but do we really in the active sense of the word? are we really looking out for the good of everyone we meet and really trying to love our neighbor as ourselves, no matter who they might be? we have an obligation. in a world where millions are broken by depression and despair without seeking treatment or help from other people and countless others are hurting deeply but hide it, we carry a hope inside of us that those around us need to witness, whether they’re deeply depressed or just having a not-so-great day. Actions speak thousands of times louder than words, so therefore, we need to not only tell the world they are loved; we need to show it to them. say hi to the kid walking next to you in the hallway. Give a smile to the person working the register at the store. hang out with people who might need a friend. Listen to people, talk with people, just be with
them when they need it. Show the world they have worth, they have a purpose. Show them that they matter, and that someone lovingly created them and still loves them far more than they could ever possibly imagine. Show them a different, brighter side of life than what they’ve experienced. Show them that they’re not alone and that weren’t meant to be. Show
them that someone cares. Show them hope. Show them love.