What is love?

Here are some interesting statistics about the internet:

There are 1,463,632,361 total estimated internet users in the world (as of the second quarter 2008.) That is approximately 21.9 % of the total population of the world.

Of the world usage there is an estimated 240 million internet users just in North America.

According to Google, the top ‘What is’ search in America is ‘What is love?’

That is the burning question of millions and millions of people (I would suggest whether searched for or not on the internet, it is the burning question of all of humanity's heart). And yet the very nature of this question points us ultimately to God our creator.

The answer is not "what" but "who". God is love. (1 John 4:8) This statement goes well beyond just God demonstrating acts of love, His very essence is love. And yet the very fact that we are asking the question, "What is love?", exposes our relational need and the distance we have toward our loving Father. It was a truly sacrificial act of love by God the Father (who is love) , by sending His very own Son as a sacrifice and substitution for us (John 3:16), in order to reconcile us relationally to Him again.

Since people are asking "What is love?", we have a tremendous responsibility to not only proclaim that wonderful message of love but also live that out, incarnationally, in our life as well.

The world is asking about love and they are watching us. And unfortunately what they are seeing too often coming from the church does NOT look like love. We fight. We gossip. We bicker. We alienate and ostracize others.

How can we as the church demonstrate love to a world hungry to know what love is? I would love to hear your comments!

References:

(http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2008/mind.html)

(http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)