Love. Does it really exist?

[cjwrdl]

So I have been doing some major thinking lately... and I recently came to this notion that love does not exist. What we are led to believe when we were younger is just flat out not true, and my notion becomes more solidified as time goes on. I was too naive in the past to realize what was going on because of my blind hope. I am not sure if this is just me, but it seems to me that hope is just dead. "Love" is nothing but the combination of the other notions of care, friendship, sympathy, obsession, and I am sure I am missing more. The feelings of butterflies in my stomach or an excitement to be with someone is not there anymore. Do I care? sure. Do I have friends? sure. Do I have sympathy? Eh.. not to much, if you really want to know why just message me I don't want to go on a rant.

Give me your maybe I am salvageable??

[needFORspeed116]

Matthew 5:44
But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!


Matthew 5:46
What reward do you get if you love only those who love you?


Matthew 19:19
Honor father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself.”


Matthew 24:12
Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. ---- <<< No wonder you feel that way.


Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.


1 Corinthians 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.


1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.


Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

[cjwrdl]

I like that response, but what do I do to change what has happened? Is there anything I can do? I liked those feelings, living, fighting, breathing, and just being there for someone else... I am at my highest self-awareness, and I have great friends and family, and I still feel like nothing... Its just bothering me, because I know its wrong.

[needFORspeed116]

Hello, I'm feeling led to share these too because I really feel that you do sincerely want to get help, then the ball will be in your court.


So to answer your question, I feel that human beings CANNOT fully love without having "God in their life" or at least it's tough to do so CONSISTENTLY without knowing what it means to first feel loved by their Creator.


Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.


The BEST response I can give you is to seek the source of Love, which these texts say is God(The Father, The Son named Jesus, and The Holy Spirit). See if you can learn to love your Creator, then He will bless you with a wife/husband, whatever gender you are.


And HOW do you love God, you ask?


John 3:3
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”


John 3:16
"For God so LOVED the world(you and I), that He sent His only begotten Son, so if you come to believe in Him, you shall have eternal life and not perish."


John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to God the Father except through me."


I know you might be familiar with some of this but that's my best advise to you. Chew on this for a while to understand love.

[LifeChanges]

Give me your maybe I am salvageable??

You are salvageable. I'll tell you what everyone else tells me: It takes time.
Makes you wonder how long that will be, huh? Some days are good, some are the pits.

[MissWong]

So I have been doing some major thinking lately... and I recently came to this notion that love does not exist. What we are led to believe when we were younger is just flat out not true, and my notion becomes more solidified as time goes on. I was too naive in the past to realize what was going on because of my blind hope. I am not sure if this is just me, but it seems to me that hope is just dead. "Love" is nothing but the combination of the other notions of care, friendship, sympathy, obsession, and I am sure I am missing more. The feelings of butterflies in my stomach or an excitement to be with someone is not there anymore. Do I care? sure. Do I have friends? sure. Do I have sympathy? Eh.. not to much, if you really want to know why just message me I don't want to go on a rant.

Give me your maybe I am salvageable??

I think the feeling of love is feeling happy when around another person, like we put all our happiness into that one person because they make us feel a certain way and when that person is gone I think we feel so is our worth. That is the bad thing about feeling in love, but there are much more good things about it. You are still hung up on what didn't work out in the past, once freed of that burden you can move on.

[Vulcanoid]

To reply here, i need to make a short intro:

Love is a mere amalgam of factors. Feeling happy around someone, thinking someone is beautiful in your eyes or meets your expectations. Chemistry, exchange of positive energy, having a good time, chance or luck, emotion of the moment.... Don't think it's something awfully special or magical. A simple emotion.
I don't think that love happens only once. I think that love happens many times.... under certain circumstances, one can love the whole world. I also believe that there are only two primordial feelings. Fear and Love. Every other emotion derives from the two.
BUT
I also believe in the Energy, which is in anything and everything. Every action emanates energy or leaves a print on which the Universe (God) responds.

That being said, if you spread hate, you get hate. If you spread love, you get loved.

You claim you are cold, emotionless... well don't expect any good feelings back on you.
To be loved, you must love. True love can only happen without condition. Don't love because [insert reason]. Love simply for the sake of love. Love yourself, love your neighbor, love that random guy on the street, love the world. It may seem daunting, but if you love with no condition, you will also get loved.

And here i mean true love

[cjwrdl]

Thanks for all of your inputs. I have been bombarded with philosophical life lessons from different people, that had no idea what was going on in my life, that had relevance to what was happening to me. Not only were they sharing their life lessons, but were also using Bible verses to back them up and in that conversation I thought about every point from every person that has posted on this thread.

I like this community, and of course, thanks for all your inputs

[needFORspeed116]

Good to hear.

As for what I had to say, I'm not interested in glorifying "Youthful Puppy Love/Lust" anymore, I tend to wanna cut through bullcrap and instead, interject some real power into the issue at hand.

[Adityasb]

"Love" is nothing but the combination of the other notions of care, friendship, sympathy, obsession, and I am sure I am missing more.

Yes it exist, you yourself just gave a definition to it.

[disturbance]

So I have been doing some major thinking lately... and I recently came to this notion that love does not exist.

Wow! I have been thinking the same thing. My thoughts on this is no, love does not exist.

[needFORspeed116]

I want to come in behind everyone saying that they don't believe that love exists with a few questions:


Would you agree the Earth is a BIG place with LOTS of different people?


Would you also agree that not everyone has the same experiences? Just because you haven't noticed something in your life doesn't mean it doesn't exist in somebody else's life.


I would be careful about believing that Love does not exist.


I honestly think in places like America...Television is a MAJOR problem...it glorifies Lust alot of times...not Love...as far as "Romantic" love goes.


Television stuff can subliminally warp one's judgement.


Not just Television though, people you know and what you see them doing can warp your thinking too.


Is this registering with anyone?


Don't expect "Love" to be easily viewed on TV and in Movies and even in real life...because LOVE is NOT "glamorous" by its nature...it's simply that...Love.

[orionfoxgibson]

Sorry to hear that "disturbance".
To quote a favorite band.........."Id rather feel pain than nothing at all."
To quote a bad movie............." The man who loves nothing has nothing. What joy could there be in such a life?"
Think of it like Ice-cream.
There are several flavors and toppings and such.
But theres only one that rocks your socks off to such a point youd sell your soul for another taste.
Like Ice-cream again.....
I cant fathom meeting a person wo has not even heard of it or thought about it or tried it.
Good luck to everyone out there.
Peace.

[irrevocably]

the fact that you are alive is because you believe that love does exist... why? because you still have desire... desire to live, desire to breathe, desire to eat.... this is another form of love, love for life -
if you didn't love life then you would give up on it... which is what some do when they have truly "lost" themselves in the idea that there isn't love.

How could anyone dare say such a thing - when the very reason your heart beats is because that love is still living inside of you. love is infinite, its all around you - so much so that you can't even notice it, either you are blind or just choose not to see it. It is a matter of perspective - which is the key to a lot of life's problems. A lot of obstacles will deal with whether you see the glass as half empty or half full.
Heard a guy complain because he didn't have new shoes, but that changed when he met a man that didn't have any feet! Suddenly his problem didn't seem so bad - what happened? His perspective shifted!

[tropicalheatwave]

the fact that you are alive is because you believe that love does exist... why? because you still have desire

no because we were born without beliefs and desire. their are many people who are still alive yet have no desire to live, but also have no desire to terminate their existence. the only way to truly test someones desire to live is to place them in a situation where their life is at stake and offer them a chance to opt out. such as being stranded in a desert for days and finding a gun loaded with bullets.

desire to breathe

unless something is affecting your breathing no one really has any desire to breathe because breathing is natural. that is like saying someone who has healthy eyes and could see having the desire to see.

if you didn't love life then you would give up on it... which is what some do when they have truly "lost" themselves in the idea that there isn't love.

no because most people have a more realistic, down to earth perspective on life. to alot of people saying you love life is also saying you love pain, suffering, death, war, sickness, and disease because that to is apart of life(especially people in 3rd world countries). so there are a lot of people who don't love life but haven't given up on it either.

How could anyone dare say such a thing - when the very reason your heart beats is because that love is still living inside of you. love is infinite, its all around you - so much so that you can't even notice it, either you are blind or just choose not to see it. It is a matter of perspective - which is the key to a lot of life's problems.

that is what i'm talking about. people have different perspective on what love is, or what life is. so you can't really judge anyone for saying they don't believe in love.

this is just common sense...so either accept it, grow from it, or ignore it, feel free to argue with it.

[MissWong]

Thanks for all of your inputs. I have been bombarded with philosophical life lessons from different people, that had no idea what was going on in my life, that had relevance to what was happening to me. Not only were they sharing their life lessons, but were also using Bible verses to back them up and in that conversation I thought about every point from every person that has posted on this thread.

I like this community, and of course, thanks for all your inputs

I hope you find the one for you, it seems like you would like to have a partner to share your life with. Usually when you are so busy living your life and not thinking about something( love for example) is when it comes to you.

[sayuri]

There is a difference between love and lust... Just as there is a difference between love and care... and Care and kindness...
Love and lust both exist (IMO) Why? We cannot have one without the other (again IMO) because whats the first thing we see when we look at a person? The face right?? If we find that we like how someone looks, like for example you get hit on, its its mainly due to looks no???And then after lust does love soon start to develop....
We can also love someone and not be IN love with them... that (IMO) Is care... You love your parents but are you in love with them? Not exactly...
Then there's care and Kindness... This would be catagorized (IMO) as for example, taking care of a stranger...
Anyways in my opinion, love exists but its kinda like a four leaf clover... You have to search for it C'est la vie!
~Sayu Chan