Is Love a Feeling?

Love is more than something we feel—it's something we do. Andy Crouch talks about the purpose of life and how we fulfill that purpose through the act of love.

Questions for Discussion and Personal Reflection

  1. How would you compare and contract the "feeling" of love with the "doing" of love?
  2. What does it mean to give yourself to another person?

I think love is, well, I think the feeling of love is a sign of what we're made for, which is the actual doing of love. The feeling of, of longing for someone, of intently caring for someone, is actually not the thing itself. It's, it's a sign of something that we're made to do, which is to give ourselves, um, to, to others and ultimately to God, and it's also a sign that God is love and hasn't just felt something for us, but has actually given himself. Um, so God has actually stepped into the story and entered into suffering and offered himself, and we're meant to step into people's stories and offer ourselves in their stories. Um, you know, the feeling of love is, it comes and goes and it's, it can be, you can, it can be manipulated, uh, it can be elicited, but the doing of love is much more impressive. Um, when my friend David was dying of cancer, and I was in his room, and his brother and his wife were helping him just with some very, very fundamental bodily needs that all bodies have that most of us, when we're healthy, can take care of for ourselves. And they, they gave me the gift of staying in the room while they helped David with one of these bodily needs. Uh, and to see a brother and a wife loving a human being that way, not, I don't know what they were feeling other than awkwardness, but what they were doing was love. And when we feel that, I think it, it's, it's a clue. You're made for this level of giving to, to others, uh, and someone has given themselves that much for you, uh, has entered that deeply into your reality, uh, has done that much for you. I think that's what love is actually about.