need to be loved

everyone shares the need to be loved.
---
This beautiful 50-degree weather beckoned me out of doors today, so I found myself heading to the city park for a run. I guess no one advertises these types of things, but apparently warm, sunny Saturday afternoons mean it's couple day at city park. Probably like 3/4 of the people I saw were seemingly couples, male and female, holding hands and strolling along in their matching-colored sweatsuits and sunglasses. (Okay, I exaggerated the matching outfits part, but there were definitely sunglasses being worn.)

Inevitably, I heard "I'm For You" by Toby Mac on my mp3 player and was struck by this line: "Everyone of us will fall, have our backs against the wall. And everyone shares the need to be loved." Amen to that. On Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, love is the third one, lead only by our physiological needs (to breathe and have food and water and sleep, etc.) and
safety (to be secure in our bodies, employment, health, morality, properties, etc.) -- though I somewhat disagree with that second one; I might choose love over security in my properties or employment. Love comes before our need to be respected and have self-esteem, and it comes before our need for creativity, spontaneity, and problem solving.

The need for love (which includes feeling a sense of belonging and acceptance) . People need to love and be loved. In the absence of love, these result: loneliness, social anxiety, and depression. And, yes, I'll use Wikipedia as a source, the desire to belong can overcome even our physiological needs -- an anorexic will ignore the need for security of health and the need to eat to feel accepted.

Why don't we love one another? Why do people make fun of other people and treat them as though they are less important than someone else? Why are people ignored and bullied and criticized?

Because we're sinful, you say? Okay, you're right. God commands us to love one another, but we're pretty good at screwing up what God wants us to do. Here are some Scriptures about love:

John 13:34 (NIV): A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

1 Peter 1:22: Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1 John 3:11: This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1 John 3:23: And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 4:7: Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:11-12: Dear friends, since God loved us, we surely ought to love one another. No one has even seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

2 John 1:5 (NLT): I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.
---

So, this is my goal -- not only to show love, but to be open to the love of others. To fulfill part of a need shared by every person, and this is to be loved.

***
Boy, do I have some soreness from playing basketball yesterday. Soreness and a nice big blister on the bottom of my foot. I Googled how to care for blisters, and there were a number of suggestions, including applying an antiseptic. So, I got out my nice big bottle of hydrogen peroxide (an antiseptic), dipped a Q-tip in, and lightly dabbed it on my blister. Goodness! That was very painful! I knew that stuff usually stings, but this was insane! So, I got out my Mercuroclear, which is both an antiseptic and an anesthetic, so it numbs it and cleans it. Much better. So for anyone out there wanting to learn from my experience: hydrogen peroxide = ouchy. Mercuroclear = good.