Where is the Love?

Y’all remember that old Black Eyed Peas song?

People hurtin’, people dyin’

Children hurt, and you hear them cryin’

Can you practice what you preach?

And would you turn the other cheek?

Father, Father, Father, help us

Send some guidance from above

‘Cause people got me, got me questioning

Where is the Love?

Well, I have an response to submit:

It’s inside of you and it’s inside of me. It’s inside them and it’s inside of we. That’s where the Love is.

Every single person on earth, with no exception, has Love nestled deep, deep, deep — add a handful more if necessary — deep, inside their being.

And if you dig and can’t find it, you haven’t dug far enough because it is in there and it’s as generous as the stars.

Photo: Nathan Dawang | IG - @nate.dawang

It’s the kind of Love that heals. Transforms. Alchemizes. Turns this into that and stands in the gap. It’s the Love that actively participates by taking a critical look at every day choices and inch-by-inch aligns them with itself.

And it’s in you. And in me. In them and in we.

It is the kind of Love that holds enemies in mind with stubborn hope, sending Living Water words of Grace, Truth and Life across space and time, beckoning to the Love they risk to trust is lodged — like a seed — deep inside.

And it’s in you. And in me. In them and in we.

It’s Love that sits down with the parts of us who are violent with fury, nauseous with terror and overwhelmed with uncertainty and says, “I got you. That makes sense to me.”

And it’s in you. And in me. In them and in we.

It’s Love that is the very filament from which the courage to stand up to bullies comes from, even when there is a risk. It generously brings skills, talents, money, time and energy to the table saying, “What’s useful is yours.” It’s the impetus for restraint when we want to say or take more. And how we might venture to pick ‘you’ and ‘we’ over ‘I’ and ‘me’.

And it’s in you. And in me. In them and in we.

We’re in a severe moment in time. One of utter disorder inviting us to pick our character informed by our Character.

And the more people who choose to embody their inherent Character of Love, the more people will embody a character of Love. That’s the way Love works. It proliferates itself, just like the reciprocity and abundance of Nature.

So, if I might, I’ll submit a new question to replace the old:

Will we — you and me — choose to live into and out of Love that’s inside of us?