The Truth About Love

All is well. I'm hurting some, but each day is a little easier, and I went for my first walk yesterday. I am cogitating this morning on the linkage between Love and Risk. This passage in Matthew 28:16-17 in The Message totally intrigues me:

Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him, they worshiped him. Some though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.

Wow. They were having an actual PHYSICAL "mountain top experience" with the risen Christ, and STILL, "some held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally."

I have a former pastor, Steve Meeks, who liked to say "Faith is spelled R-I-S-K." I totally believe that. But I also believe that Love is spelled R-I-S-K.

Sara Groves wrote an amazing song awhile back, called Loving A Person:

Loving a person

Just the way they are

It's no small thing

It takes some time

To see things through

Sometimes things change

Sometimes we're waiting

We need grace either way.

Hold on to me

I'll hold on to you

Let's find out

The beauty of seeing things through

There's a lot of pain in Reaching out and trying It's a vulnerable place to be Love and Pride can't occupy The same spaces baby Only one makes you free

Hold on to me...

Sometimes, the people we love hurt us. It's how it is. And it sucks. But the proper response is to love anyway. In the book The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams makes the same point in a slightly different way:

It was the Velveteen Rabbit who asked the Skin Horse (who "was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out."

"What is REAL?..."

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

I have a favorite love quote. It is attached below. I really love the ending. "Love is pain and sacrifice. It is seeing the darkness in another person and defying the impulse to jump ship." You people who are dating think LOVE is Moonlight and Roses, and it's not. It's Daylight and Dishes, and crying babies and surly teenagers. It's Commitment. If you are together long enough, you WILL hurt each other. Stick it out. Love anyway. Love through the pain, and keep loving them. Don't run. Love them. Work it out. R-I-S-K.

"Love is deliberate. Love is hard. Love is pain and sacrifice, it's seeing the darkness in another person and defying the impulse to jump ship.