If You Must...

If you must love, then love deeply. Why settle for superficial relationships or be satisfied with mere lust? There are too many fairweather friends out there. You know, the ones who are all into you for a while, use you up, then just slowly fade out of your life. This happens a lot and I grieve it every time, but love is something worthy of diving into, even though you take a risk by doing so...

A line from one of my favorite songs: "Sometimes love can break your heart, but I'll die believing love is always worth the pain. Dreams can fly or fall apart, but love is never given in vain. It's sad but it's true, you do all you can do. Sometimes love can break your heart." Another song says, "You will never lose what you give to love." So true. To love someone and lose them is not the same as making a bad investment in the stock market. Often we only love for what we can get out of it in return. To love is good for you- no matter what the outcome. We love & learn from it- one way or the other. Marriages fail, but that doesn't mean love failed. It merely means two fallible human beings got together and tried in vain to make their personalities blend. This is a gargantuan task and not one to be taken lightly!!!
The saying goes, "You hurt the ones you love the most". Yes, true- because we're human. "Happily Ever After" bothers me. Charming? Yes, but it sets people up to believe a lie. I don't care how much you love each other, you're going to tick each other off once in a while. You're probably going to have some falling outs. You're likely to wonder at times what you were thinking when you married this *^&#%. Still, that doesn't mean love failed...

Love is built on a solid foundation of trust & insulated with forgiveness. After getting burned several times, we tend to become skeptics. We hold love suspect, avoid intimacy and keep people at arms length. We tend to stand on the banks of this mighty river- but only dip a toe in for fear of losing control and being swept away. How cowardly of us!! We make excuses for living with a closed heart. He did this, she did that. When you really think about it- so what?! Do we allow other people to dictate who we are??? It's like saying, "He hurt me, so I'm going to punish him by never allowing myself to love again"? You're only hurting yourself... I think the truest measure of a man or woman is how boldly & creatively they love.

Our time in this world is short. I do not want to be a flickering flame that burns down to nothing in wicked silence. I want to be a flaming presence eminating warmth, making a difference. I want to love and be loved with reckless abandon...

I believe this is the kind of love The Almighty has for us.