Love Letters   Love Stories   Love Songs

& Overflowing Cups of Love

I’ve been putting time into expressing what it truly means to live only in the state of love. When I say only it is living in the default position of love as a Branch of and in the Vine of Jesus. It’s the insights and empathy and attempts to deconstruct and see and hear and feel all in ways of others in myself. I am also exploring what might otherwise may feel like worded insult/s, to reconstruct it unto loving words and turning it into something healing instead. Same story and both true, one told bad and one told good with love

The same story can be told in two completely different ways. When it’s told as an insult, it comes from the spirits of deception and ticks and attaches to ego—those quiet, demonic voices that twist reality to build one person up by tearing another down. But ego isn’t who we/YOU really are, neither in ourselves nor in others. The default position of love is to see everyone as someone you love equally. The best way in this explanation is to Love the Sinner not the Sin. You don’t have to love the harmful things someone does, but you can still love the person. When you focus on the good they’ve done and the positive experiences you’ve shared, the relationship becomes more loving. It is to love a person and as I know well he could be the one with a hammer that builds you a home and he could be the one with a hammer that hits you in the head.

Even with enemies, this is possible. A month or two ago I couldn’t have said this honestly, but now I can: I love the very people who tried to murder me just as much as I love my brother, my mother, and my sister. That doesn’t mean I love everything they did—far from it. No one loves a hammer to the head. No one loves destructive actions. Most people living in sin are, in a spiritual sense, already walking toward death. Yes its is why Satan is referred to as a Murderer from the start as the wage of sin is Death. I’ve sometimes called them “the Walking Dead,” not as an insult, but as a description of a spiritual reality of all the lies that have entrapped the planet. If that phrase is thrown at someone without explanation, it sounds cruel—and cruelty only feeds dark impulses, giving bad spirits whispering if the ears of the many more reasons to attack and lie.

Consider a car accident. One person yells, “Fuck off!” The other asks, “Are you okay? Can I help?” It’s the same event, but the outcomes are completely different. The angry response isolates everyone, including the person shouting it—it shows no concern for others and, in truth, none for oneself either. Love, on the other hand, is always the win.

Most mistakes I’ve seen in family and friends—and in my own life—stem from choices that would never have been made sober. Alcohol (and drugs) opens a door to very dark spirits. It’s striking that we even call them “spirits.” When intoxicated, those whispering voices become more convincing. They convince you they are your own thoughts. They attach to the ego, inflating it into a false persona. Even when I did drink I knew and even said if I was was sober I would not associate at all with the same people I let in my home while in alcohol. These influences don’t start in your twenties; they begin in childhood. Over time, you may start believing the voices are you. They are not. It is all tricks and lies, to think you are in your own head at times arguing with yourself is fool overload, NO its is not you its the liar to leave.

I remember the old Bugs Bunny cartoons with a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. That should have been labeled a documentary. Instead, we tell children it’s just entertainment—something to laugh at and forget. The education system, truthfully named, would be called the indoctrination system. From the beginning, the father of lies deceived Eve, and humanity has been trapped in the enslavement of sin ever since. The wage of sin is death—spiritual death first, then physical.

The best way to overcome harmful people or situations is with love and truth. Truth is most powerful when delivered with kindness. If the intent isn’t to help and heal, ask yourself why you’re speaking at all. If the goal is to hurt, the truth is being abused.

Here are two ways of saying the same difficult truth:

“Liars are cowards.”

“Are you okay? Can I help?”

The first statement, standing alone, feels like an attack. The second opens a door to understanding. Truth-telling requires courage: the strength to own mistakes, to face unpleasant realities, and to stand in the light where pain can become a lesson and, eventually, a gain. Communicating with love means finding a way to offer insight without making it appear as an insult. Dishonesty often comes from fear—fear of consequences, judgment, or exposure—but the motivations are complex. Some lie out of self-preservation or deep insecurity; others use lies to manipulate. Not every liar fits one mold. Many compulsive liars act from profound shame or vulnerability. Seeing this clearly allows compassion without excusing the harm.

This Christmas was the best I’ve ever had—the first in at least thirty years that I truly celebrated in the love of Jesus. I was in awe of the clarity and joy I felt. The timing of certain conversations felt perfectly guided. I decided to write about my “love cup” overflowing and how even paths that once seemed dark could be reclaimed as paths to love. I am in love with Jesus, with the Father, and filled again with the Holy Spirit. We celebrated the greatest gift of all: Jesus Himself, who took on the suffering of all our sins so that, through God’s grace and our repentance, we might return to the Father.

I enjoyed only what truly matters: the closeness, kindness, and selflessness of my family, and our love for each other. Doors that had long been closed opened again. The light and love of God poured in, and joy returned. On Christmas morning at 7:17 a.m. I spoke to my mother with more love and joy than in years. Then I spoke with my sister—my favorite sister (and, yes, my only sister). I reminded her of her beauty, kindness, and selflessness, and how she seems to be aging backward—she looks healthier, happier, and more loving than the year before. My brother, his wife, and their two children I adore. We shared the most loving, delicious meal filled with smiles and kind words. It was a gracious, beautiful day.

Today—sometimes called Boxing Day—I decided to box up all the pain and suffering of past years. From this day forward, I choose to live only in love: to be kind, to share, to care, exactly as God wants us to be.

I’ve long loved Gandhi’s words: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This year, when the world around me felt attacking and hurtful, I went inward. There I found more love, and I knew it was God. I opened the Bible and found the words of Jesus. The connection was overwhelming. I fell in love. The more I read, the more love I found. Love grows love. Love gives. Love is found in Jesus—the vine that enables every branch to bear much fruit.

This is only the beginning of what I want to share, because I care. I’ve also learned how to find love stories hidden inside other people’s stories that might otherwise feel painful or confusing. Those will come in separate posts, but the message is the same: it is truly possible to express yourself in a way that turns any experience into a love story, a love song, a cup overflowing.

Jesus took the cup of the Father—the cup of suffering for the sins of many. That story contains deep pain, but also the greatest gain. It is the ultimate love story.

Jesus told several powerful love stories, known as parables, and his life itself provided many living examples that reveal God’s boundless love, mercy, and forgiveness.

One of the most moving is the Parable of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15:11-32. In this story a younger son demands his inheritance early, leaves home, and wastes everything on reckless living. He ends up starving, feeding pigs, and finally decides to return home, hoping only to be accepted as a servant. Yet while he is still far off, his father sees him, runs to him filled with compassion, embraces him, kisses him, and throws a great celebration with the fatted calf. The father had been watching and waiting all along. This father represents God, who actively seeks His lost children, rejoices over their repentance, and restores them fully—not as servants, but as beloved sons and daughters.

In the same chapter of Luke, Jesus tells the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin. A shepherd leaves ninety-nine safe sheep to search for one that is lost, and a woman turns her house upside down to find a single missing coin. When each is found, there is joyful celebration with friends and neighbors. Jesus explains that heaven rejoices even more over one sinner who repents than over those who never strayed. These stories show God’s relentless, seeking love—He pursues every person, no matter how far they have wandered or how small they feel.

Jesus lived out these truths in His own actions. A woman known as a sinner poured out profound love by anointing His feet with perfume and tears; Jesus said her great love flowed from the great forgiveness she had received. He sought out Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector, and went to his house, an act of kindness that transformed Zacchaeus and led him to give half his possessions to the poor. And in one of His most humble moments, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, then gave them this command: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” His entire life was the greatest love story ever told.

It’s the love story that just keeps on giving. These are the many examples of how to become the better version of yourself—which is funny, because the closer you get to that best version, the more selfless your behavior becomes, simply because you love. It’s not weakness; it’s the ultimate strength. It’s the way to win every battle, because what someone might do in anger pales in comparison to what God does with love—and what you can do with love. That is the true win in everything. All is in love, and love wins. Jesus is love.

I will add some scripture in time, but my most loving recommendation to everyone is this: get yourself an Old Testament and New Testament, become a friend of Jesus, and consider every good choice you make in life to be made from love.

Jesus not only taught love through parables and lived it through His actions—He also inspired profound acts of love from those who knew Him best, especially the women who followed Him closely. Their stories reveal hearts overflowing with gratitude, devotion, and Spirit-led insight, turning moments of deep emotion into eternal expressions of love.

One beautiful example comes from Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus. After Jesus raised her brother from the dead, Mary carried a profound awareness of both life and mortality. In a touching scene depicted in the series The Chosen, she stands at the doorway of the tomb—the heavy round stone now rolled away—and is overcome with memory and Holy Spirit insight. Something stirs within her: a recognition that the One who conquered death for her brother would soon face it Himself. Moved by this revelation, she goes and purchases costly perfume, later pouring it over Jesus’ feet (and in some accounts, His head) in an act of worship and preparation for His burial. Though she may not have fully understood the timing or the full prophetic weight, Jesus affirmed her actions, saying she had done a beautiful thing and that her story would be told wherever the gospel is preached.

This anointing appears in multiple Gospels (Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:3-9, John 12:1-8), where Jesus explicitly connects it to His coming death: “She did it to prepare me for burial.” The disciples criticized the extravagance, seeing it as waste, but Jesus saw the heart behind it—pure, selfless love that honored Him in a way no one else yet grasped.

A similar yet distinct anointing is recorded in Luke 7, where a woman known as a sinner pours perfume on Jesus’ feet, washing them with her tears and wiping them with her hair. Here, Jesus highlights that her great love flows from the great forgiveness she has received: “Her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown.”

These women—Mary of Bethany and the forgiven sinner—demonstrate how love responds to grace. One acts from gratitude for sins forgiven; the other, led by the Spirit, prepares the Savior for the ultimate act of love on the cross.

And then there is Mary Magdalene, another devoted follower deeply close to Jesus. She is the first to encounter the risen Christ at the empty tomb (John 20:11-18). Weeping, she mistakes Him for the gardener until He speaks her name—“Mary.” In that instant she recognizes Him and cries “Rabboni!” (Teacher). Jesus tells her, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” He was not referring to physical touch but to clinging to the old way of relating to Him. A new era had begun—He was now the risen Lord, soon to ascend, and she was commissioned as the first messenger of the resurrection.

Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples with the joyful news: “I have seen the Lord!” In her love and faithfulness, she became the first witness to the greatest victory of all.

These stories—of anointing, tears, devotion, and resurrection encounter—are overflowing cups of love. They show women who loved Jesus extravagantly, understood deeply (sometimes by the Spirit’s leading), and responded with everything they had. Their actions remind us that true love sees beyond the moment, honors sacrifice, celebrates forgiveness, and proclaims resurrection hope. Love prepares, love weeps, love recognizes, love runs to tell—and in every case, love wins.

I love you. I love you all. To understand how to love your enemy is to love the sinner, not the sin.