Hate is a strong word.

I have had whole conversations with people, and fully agreed with them, that we shouldn’t use hate flippantly. You know what I’m talking about. “I hate when I see dogs wearing pink tutus. Everyone knows that green is the only appropriate color for a tutu on a dog.

I’m joking about the tutu, but I think you get the idea. We say we “hate” this or that and what we tend to mean is that we would rather some other variant or outcome. I hate the traffic in Charlotte doesn't mean that I deeply loathe each person in their car. It means I want the roads all to myself. I think we all understand that hate is a powerful word and that we would be wise to use it as such.

Why no love for love?

We throw the word love around like rice at weddings. I love the new burger at McDonalds. I love summer mornings. I love your new jeans. I just love this song - turn it up! Whenever we feel something about, well, anything we fall in love with it. New things. Tried and true things.

Love isn’t about what we feel. We feel love when we meet a new cute boy or girl. We write music and poetry about such love. But that love is completely different from the love a couple has after 20, 40, even 60 years of marriage.

When we throw love around, we diminish its value. Love is a powerful emotion, yes, but it is much more. A couple doesn’t reach 60 years of marriage on limerence. We will never love our enemies if we are to hug them and look longingly into their eyes. And what of the love of God? An unconditional love. Agape love. A love so profound it manifests and mounts a cross.

Love is not what we feel, or think. Love does. Love is a verb.

We do a disservice to the notion of love when we flippantly throw it around for want of a better adjective. Like a song overplayed, love becomes noise in the background. Real love is the most powerful force in the universe and neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, can overcome it.