Upendo Ministries

It’s easy to say “I love God.” It’s easy to say “I love people.” We live in a world full of words—posted, quoted, and repeated. But what if love was never meant to be spoken first? What if it was meant to be shown?

Real love isn’t just a feeling or a phrase. Real love is what we live when no one’s watching. It’s not just something we say on a good day. It’s something we prove on the hard ones.

Loving God is not always mountaintop moments and beautiful worship songs. Sometimes, it’s quiet and gritty and painful. It’s the decision to stay when He feels silent. To keep praying when your heart feels numb. To open your Bible in the morning when everything in you wants to quit. It’s choosing holiness when compromise feels easier and everyone else seems to be taking the easy way out.

Love for God looks like trust when fear makes more sense. Like surrender when your plans fall apart. Like obedience when you don’t understand. We say we love Him—but do we follow Him when it costs our comfort? Do we still call Him good when the healing doesn’t come the way we expected? That’s the kind of love that goes beyond emotion. That’s the kind of love that stays.

And it’s the kind of love He showed us first.

Jesus didn’t just say “I love you.” He proved it. With a crown of thorns. With pierced hands. With blood spilled for people who didn’t deserve it—people like us. He loved us through silence, through suffering, through separation from the Father. He gave us a love that cost Him everything.

If that’s the love we’ve received, how can we settle for anything less in return?

And loving Him—really loving Him—means we must love people too. Not just when it’s easy. Not just when they’re kind. Not just when it feels good.

True love doesn’t wait to be repaid. It doesn’t need to be seen. It’s not about being right or getting credit. It’s about showing up. Again and again. It’s wiping tears at midnight. It’s choosing grace when offense feels justified. It’s listening without needing to fix. It’s welcoming someone in when you have nothing left to give.

It’s making a meal for someone who forgot your birthday. It’s sending that message, even when they never replied to the last one. It’s praying for the person who hurt you, not because they asked, but because Jesus did.

This kind of love isn’t glamorous. But it’s holy. And it’s rare. And it’s what we’re called to.

If love never stretches you, humbles you, or costs you—can it really be called love? Because real love is sacrificial. Real love is inconvenient. Real love says, “I’ll carry this with you,” even when it’s heavy.

And no, we won’t always get it right. But what matters is that we try. That we don’t let love stop at the edge of comfort. That we love beyond words—into action.

Because at the end of our lives, we won’t be remembered by our titles or talents or how well we spoke. We’ll be remembered by how well we loved. Did we reflect Jesus in the way we lived? Did we show up? Did we forgive, stay, and serve—even when it was hard?

That’s the kind of love I want to live.

Even if no one sees.
Even if it’s never praised.
Even if it’s costly.

Because love isn’t just what we say with our lips. It’s what we live with our lives.

And that kind of love—the kind that looks like Jesus—is the only kind that will last.

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

-Vanessa