I am at the beginning stages of learning once again what love is.

Today, I was reminded that compassion is not just merely empathy or feeling sorry for someone. It is entering into that pain and suffering with them, experiencing it with them, and being with them. This is part of love.

Love is also commitment, choosing to be with someone and stick by his/her side no matter how awful he/she is, how far away he/she gets, or how much he/she hurts others in the process. People in my life have given me this gift over and over again.

Love is also confession, for in those moments of vulnerability, one takes a risk of being abandoned for the sake of forgiveness and showing remorse and a desire to change. Sharing this with someone is allowing them to come in and see one's weakness, one's short-comings. It is an admission of imperfection and a deep experience of humility. It is the opposite of pride. This is also love.

Lord, keep teaching me, and give me the strength to be this for others, for I have nothing good within me to offer anyone beyond what You give me.