Love must be exercised.
February 26, 1984
Your life should serve as an opportunity for the exercise of love. When you perceive God, the first concept which comes to your mind is love, even more than power or light or forgiveness, for the power comes from love, the light is an evidence of love, and forgiveness is the exercise of love. But all there is is love. The only thing there is is love ultimately.
As you grow spiritually, you grow in your capacity to exercise love, for love must be exercised. It must be used. It is not unlike a muscle which when left unchallenged or unused becomes functionless. For those who do not exercise love, life is empty, life is unsettled, and life in the end is void of meaning. If you look back upon your life and find evidence of the exercise of love, then you must feel that your life has had meaning, has had direction, has been important. If you accomplish many things and have not loved, your life is vanity. If you accomplish little of a material nature and yet respond to the world with love, then your life achieves its purpose. It achieves God’s purpose for you.
