What is love? Take 30 seconds to write down as much as you can to describe love. Ready? Go! What did you write? How did your Christian faith shape your response to that question? 

Over the past several weeks, Chapel’s senior youth have been discussing what it means to love in today’s world. One piece of advice from the movie Moulin Rouge! stresses how vital love is to life: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” Based on the numbers of movies and songs and stories that focus on love in our society, it would appear that most people believe this statement to be true. But love, the youth have found, can be difficult to describe. It is even more difficult to describe love apart from God. Notice too that the quote from Moulin Rouge! says love is important but it does not define what love actually is.

Looking at this quote from Moulin Rouge! and comparing it with the scripture’s teaching on love, Bill Rusnak, Director of Family Ministries, and Julie Meyer, NYG adult chaperon, have led our youth in several discussions about what it means to love in today’s world. Most especially, the youth have shared for themselves what it means for God to love them in Jesus. As youth who are very attune to the culture, they are equally adept at discerning the difference between God’s radical, unconditional love and the false loves that the world offers. 

Live Love(d) was the theme of the National Youth Gathering (NYG) in San Antonio, Texas. This Gathering redefined in biblical terms what it means to love and be loved. What is crucial to recognize is that in the theme “Live Love(d),” the “(d)” makes all the difference. We cannot even begin to know what it means to love others in the biblical sense of the term until and unless we know and trust God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. “We love,” says John,” “because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). By the same token, once we know God’s love in Christ we cannot help but love God and others; “whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21).

Earlier we considered this quote: “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” How might this revision be an improvement? “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is that you are loved and that you are able to love in return.” Martin Luther provides his own Christian insight when he describes our Christian identity as shaped purely and completely by God’s love in Christ. He writes, “Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good. Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive.... This is the love of the cross.” Chapel’s youth demonstrate a great maturity, faithfulness, and love for Christ and for others. Thus, it is exciting for all of us at Chapel to hear not just about their experiences at the NYG, but to also learn from our youth what it means to be loved by God and how to love others in return.