“God is love.
Whoever lives in love
lives in God,
and God in them."

1 John 4:16

There is a common and popular phrase at many churches across the land: God is love. Of course, I think it is better written as God IS Love. But either way, it is a common phrase spoken often in many circumstances; however, I don’t recall ever hearing it backward in church. For if God is Love, and I absolutely believe this to be true, then Love is God as well.

Yet, as I look at those two phrases, God is love, and Love is God, they are quite different in their perspective.

I see God is love as looking outside for the answers to all we want to know and the phrase Love is God is taking personal responsibility to come into alignment with God. And, from that alignment, we can spread joy wherever we go because we then become love, exude love, express love, share love, become a loving, caring, appreciation-seeking person, and in that process, we are love incarnate, we are joy, we are freedom, we are peace, we are well-being exemplified, and best of all, we are then one with God.

God gave us the opportunity to choose which perspective guides our lives. I choose joy. I choose love. And, as a result, I am in a greater and greater appreciation of every thing and every one in every new day that I have the privilege to in-joy.