loving more.

"You know how they say we only use 10 percent of our brains? I think we only use 10 percent of our hearts" — John Beckwith, Wedding Crashers

I always thought that I had been given a special gift: the ability to love a lot.

That idea never really sounded right in my mind, an ability to love a lot?  I couldn't quite figure it out. I came to some realization one day as I had spent time with my dream girl on paper: because I knew that she had a boyfriend, any attraction I could have for her had to be redirected to a platonic love (something made easier through my past experiences with females.)  Although at that moment I didn't love her, it had become quite clearer and easier for me to recognize that I could love her as a friend.

That was when I realized that it wasn't that I have an 'ability to love a lot.'  The ability has been more along the lines of being able to recognize the abundance of love God has available to all of us and then sharing that love— the gift I had been given has always been the ability to acknowledge and share His love, I just never realized it.  However, we are all able to and called to share in this love; as my friend put it, "We all can have a heavenly capacity to love."

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

                                                                       1 John 4:7-8