Why Saying I Love Yoga Pants Helps Me Love Better

Love. Sometimes I feel like I use the word a little too liberally: I love my husband, licorice, yoga pants. Does the word start to lose its meaning? Or could that little word act as a reminder that actually helps me love better?

I toss our English word “love” around way too much.

I love dark chocolate and beach walks and Sunday afternoon snoozes. Rainy days, guacamole, good pens, and cozy blankets.

I love the four seasons and a good cup of coffee and an organized day.

Yes, I love all these things but not in the I-Love-You way that I love my husband and my family and friends. And certainly not in the way that I love my Lord and Savior.

So I’m trying to be more careful about tossing around that word. I don’t want it to fall into the too-familiar category where the word gets watered down and loses its power.

If I say I love working in yoga pants one morning as I sip my coffee and click away on my keyboard, and then use the same word as I say good morning to the man I’ve been married to for over thirty years? I know it’s different. But it’s the same word. And doesn’t that mean something?

What does “love” even mean?

It’s so complicated, and especially for us English speakers who only have one word to describe so many emotions. I’ve read that some languages have twenty, thirty, even ninety words for love.

I’m no expert here at all, but I do know one place where I learn about the love that matters. God’s Word. And I do recall at least three Greek words that are translated as love: Eros which is physical/intimate love; Phileo, brotherly love; and Agape, the unconditional grace-filled love that God has for you and me.

It’s that last one that ultimately matters today and tomorrow.

Christ reminds me. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:37-39

Love, Love, Love.

I love the view out my office window right now. There’s a gentle rain and the green leaves—each one unique—are dripping with this abundance from the heavens and this reminds me of the Creator and love and beauty and neighborliness, kindness, forgiveness.