הכול או כלום

All or Nothing.

I have adopted this saying as my motto. Why "All or Nothing?" Well, I feel like Christ has called me to live for him completely or not at all. Too many times, people who profess they "love Jesus.." but really, their lives do not reflect the life Jesus lived.

Here is a little bit about what I learned about the word, "love.." In the English language, we use one word for any type of love, "love." However, in the Greek language, there are three different words for different types of love,"Eros, Phileo, and Agape." I am going to focus on the two types of love, Phileo and Agape.

• Phileo is a "brotherly love" that we feel for someone. This type of love is a friendship between two people who engage in a "give and take" relationship. It is the love that makes friendships so enjoyable.
• Agape love is an unconditional love that keeps giving no matter what. It devotes total commitment to seek your highest best no matter how anyone may respond. This form of love is totally selfless and does not change whether the love given is returned or not. This is the original and only true form of love.

I guess, I am perplexed by the idea of only having one word that means "love" in the English language, because I feel like so many people say they "love Jesus," but mean it in the Phileo way. However, how many people can actually say that they have the "Agape love" for Christ that he loves us with?

In the dictionary, the word, "love" means:

1. A profoundly tender, passionate affection
2. A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection
3. A love affair; an intensely amorous incident
4. To need or require

I love the last definition of love, "TO NEED OR REQUIRE." How many of us can say that we truly feel like we need or require God in our daily lives?

I am not meaning to sound like I have conquered this idea to have an Agape kind of love with Christ, however, I know that my heart is truly working towards it. This is where my saying "All or Nothing" comes from. I am giving all I have to work towards having an Agape love with God, and that means that I will represent Jesus to the fullest in my everyday life. I know I will mess up, but that is where my heart is..

And, this, is why I got the tattoo on my foot:

• It means, "All or Nothing" in Hebrew
• It is written in Hebrew because the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.. and this is where I have drawn this motto from, through studying in the Old Testament
• It is on my foot because I want to follow in the footsteps of Christ, and represent him to this world to my fullest potential
• It is permanent, just like my faith needs to be.. It is not something that I can live out when I feel like it.. it is a permanent faith