L O V E

What is love?



















Are you kidding me?! How on earth could I define such a term? This is a word that people try all their lives to define: to define it for others, for themselves,…for their pets (?).




So where do you start? Well I guess the ever (and sometimes over) quoted 1 Corinthians 13 might be a good place to give it a go.

So love is:
-Patient
- Kind
- Does not envy
- Does not boast
- Not proud
- Not rude
- Not self-seeking
- Not easily angered
- Keeps no record of wrongs
- Does not delight in evil
- Rejoices in truth
- Always protects
- Always trusts
- Always hopes
- Always perseveres

Well as much as I like lists, I feel like something this big can’t be summed up in one. Not to mention I’ve heard that so much it’s sometimes hard not to go on autopilot while reading. I feel like God has given me a mandate (that word makes me laugh for so many reasons) to love. I think it might be my purpose in life. Even so, I do a terrible job at it. So you’re thinking, “Swell job, Gibson. You can’t even fulfill your purpose.” Ok so it’s a work in progress. First off I want to know what it is to truly love those I’m close to: my friends, family, significant other. In a society where “love” is thrown about so casually, it can be very difficult to understand what kind of love God wanted us to show.

On Oprah the other day (yes I occasionally watch Oprah…so do you, don’t lie) Lance Armstrong’s ex-wife came on to talk about what she wished she had known about marriage. She said, in so many words, that she wished she hadn’t given herself up. Well in a way I understood and sympathized. She was cautioning women not to loose their identity in their husbands and lives of their husbands. You have to be yourself, I’ll give her that. But the manner in which she discussed this for some reason didn’t sit right with me. I felt like she was saying not to sacrifice any of yourself. Well I’m sorry but I highly believe in sacrificial love! I have been given a pretty good example you could say. I want to be willing to sacrifice my wants and wishes for the good of those I love! I don’t want to do anything half-heartedly either.

So now to this dilemma that the world doesn’t seem to have issues with… Christ said it was no good just to love those who love you back. If I just do that I’m no better than the IRS. So I have to love everyone? Dadgum it. This gets harder by the minute. A pet peeve of a friend is when people say “I’ll love them, but just because Jesus told me to!” Give me a break. Do you think they are really loving at that moment? Probably not. So I need to love the competition, the people who give me tests, the people who laugh at me when I’m not looking, and the people who no one has ever seen or heard of. Wow this is big, something it takes a lifetime (and more) to understand.

Well I feel like we’ve gotten all of nowhere on this one.

Let’s try the Bible again, just read a little differently:
“Love never gives up, love cares more for others than for self, love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of the truth, puts up with anything, trust God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end.”

So I need help. I need God to continually grow my capacity for love, and I need you guys to keep me accountable. I need to keep trying to figure out with love means.

Let me know if you have any other ideas of what love is!

And hey…

I love you.

So I go back tomorrow...

I go back tomorrow!

I’m excited….

I think.

So I start my second year at Furman University soon, and I so hope it’s everything I’ve been looking forward to. I’ve fought this summer with everything in me since April, and now I’m not sure how much good it’s done. When I came back to Maryville late May, I felt like I was dying. I was soooooo homesick for Furman. As a certain boyfriend of mine can attest, I cried pretty much all day every day for the first week. Terrible I know. I wanted my friends, my beautiful home, my freedom, and my “church.” I just didn’t want to be where I was. I felt like I had changed beyond understanding for those I was close to in Maryville, and I was afraid that there was no way I could be myself around them anymore.

Well a couple weeks into the summer I went to Amanda’s (a best friend from home), and we just started talking. She told me that she had seen a change in me and was pretty sure it was similar to the way she had changed in the past year. I almost hit the floor. We talked for a long time about faith, our home church, and how all of our friends fit into this. It was pretty amazing.

If a new and different relationship with my best friend were the only positive outcome this summer, it would have been worth it.

Through the middle of the summer I was in and out of town constantly, and didn’t really have much time to think about anything to be honest. I still missed Taylor and all my friends from school terribly. It seemed like the summer would never end. I’ve been home more in the past month though, and yes, it has been boring. Except for one thing…. God revealed something major to me I think. It’s kind of scary, but insanely exciting. Sorry, but I can’t release details at this time. A press conference will take place in the future.

Last night at church I said goodbye to everyone who was still left in town, and it was harder than I thought it would be. While I was just wanting the summer to get over, I neglected to see how my relationships at home were changing. Everyone was telling me they loved me, be safe, all those things adults say, but they meant it. A man from my church was talking to me and proceeded to tell me that he had seen a change in me this past year. I (supposedly) am much more outgoing and friendly, and the smile on my face is somehow different than it used to be.

Has Furman made me truly happy this past year? Perhaps. Or maybe it’s the relationships I’ve built with the people around me. And maybe God has given me more to smile about. You’ll just have to wonder.

So I go back tomorrow…

THE END IS NEAR!!!!!

This first blog may be a bit of a downer, but it’s what’s on my mind right now. Oh well… here goes!

I have recently heard several (and I mean several) messages on the end times. I find this a bit disconcerting to be honest. I kind of cringe when I get the bulletin on Sunday morning and it says “The Battle of Armageddon” for the sermon title. Why on earth would I want to learn more about the bloodiest battle the World will see? What use is it to try and figure out the crazy language of Revelation and claim we know every detail of the end of the world?

I understand the attitude that Paul had when he told us to be mindful that the end is near at hand. We need to be prepared for the time that Christ comes. We need to live as if He were with us. But I don’t always understand why we should predict when the end is coming. Is the world getting more evil, and are we getting closer to the end?

I find myself questioning the people who week after week talk about how morally depraved our country and world is…how much worse it is getting. Doesn’t every generation say this about their young people? The people who listened to Elvis in the 1950’s listened to devil’s music according to their parents. Supposedly homosexuality is more rampant today than ever. Roman emperors took their boy lovers everywhere with them, and showed them off proudly! Orgies were an everyday part of temple worship! Isn’t this all just cyclical?

Now when I ask myself these questions, I also wonder if this is my way of copping out. Do I say these things to somehow justify the sins of my generation? Don’t I also need to be mindful that judgment will come “like a thief in the night”? Well, maybe for myself…I need to be mindful so I don’t fall into those traps. However, I don’t believe that it is our place to predict the end of the world as a way to scare people into belief.

I just don’t see how labeling the people of our society as beyond redemption and condemning them without a second thought is much help to anyone. I feel like Christians put on the attitude that we are above this mess, that we don’t have to deal with it because we have Jesus. Well guess what. We live in it. We are a part of it. We have to deal with because we have Jesus. Our mission is to bring hope, not condemnation. We have no right to condemn, seeing as we were rescued from it ourselves! And yes we need to share our faith fervently, but because we love our savior, not because there is going to be a bloody battle at the end of the world.

I also ask myself, is there really any point in dwelling on all of this? Maybe not...

Well in answer to a previous question, yes, THE END IS NEAR!!! It's always nearer! haha! Just think about these things, because I still am. I don't claim to know anything. I have a feeling I'll know a lot more in about 90 years or so. :)

My new adventure

Hey friends!

Well, I started this blog to let the world see what’s really inside this blonde little head of mine. (I’m sure many of you wonder if anything is inside there at all.) I have a feeling this will also help me to better develop my thoughts. Just thought you should know that. :) Many close friends of mine keep up a blog, and I hope you will enjoy mine as much as I enjoy theirs.