Love Hurts
Love Hurts
That hairy band form the 70’s were’t too far off when they bellowed in their emo tune “love hurts”.
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars, any heart. Love is like a flame It burns you when it’s hot. Love hurts, love hurts.
Seems like such a contrast to the famous, especially at weddings, passage from 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – Apostle Paul
Yet, I have found in my short life, that both poetic lines are true.
Loving a broken neighborhood, empowering a messy church community, discipling and being discipled and my dating relationship have all shown me this paradox in full view.
Love IS all those amazing things that Paul shared with the church in Corinth.
But it is also so much more…
Love is painful waiting, love is unfair.
It is often not returned, it is often something we feel even when we want to let go.
Love stretches your comfortability and is easily offensive to some. Love is challenging.
It keeps no record or measure of love as if you can ever “achieve” loving another person or community.
It does not delight in suffering, but it is often the cause of it.
Love rejoices in others while at the same time breaking your heart.
Love is committing to others who are broken and acknowledging your own splintered and fractured life.
Love is letting your soul be punctured by the oppression you see around you. Love is tearing your mind from all you have to see those who have so little.
Love is solidarity with others when you could choose to ignore.
Love is so powerful it can withstand broken trust, misplaced hopes, and the reality that others often won’t persevere in loving in return.
Love can feel like a failure.
But without love. We have nothing.
We ARE nothing of substance.
God made us in God’s image and God IS love.
Without love, we can’t be ourselves.
We must be compelled by love…
…for God first loved us with painful, unfair, stretching, uncomfortable, challenging, suffering and heart-wrenching love.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” – Apostle Paul
Love Hurts
That hairy band form the 70’s were’t too far off when they bellowed in their emo tune “love hurts”.
Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars, any heart. Love is like a flame It burns you when it’s hot. Love hurts, love hurts.
Seems like such a contrast to the famous, especially at weddings, passage from 1 Corinthians 13:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. – Apostle Paul
Yet, I have found in my short life, that both poetic lines are true.
Loving a broken neighborhood, empowering a messy church community, discipling and being discipled and my dating relationship have all shown me this paradox in full view.
Love IS all those amazing things that Paul shared with the church in Corinth.
But it is also so much more…
Love is painful waiting, love is unfair.
It is often not returned, it is often something we feel even when we want to let go.
Love stretches your comfortability and is easily offensive to some. Love is challenging.
It keeps no record or measure of love as if you can ever “achieve” loving another person or community.
It does not delight in suffering, but it is often the cause of it.
Love rejoices in others while at the same time breaking your heart.
Love is committing to others who are broken and acknowledging your own splintered and fractured life.
Love is letting your soul be punctured by the oppression you see around you. Love is tearing your mind from all you have to see those who have so little.
Love is solidarity with others when you could choose to ignore.
Love is so powerful it can withstand broken trust, misplaced hopes, and the reality that others often won’t persevere in loving in return.
Love can feel like a failure.
But without love. We have nothing.
We ARE nothing of substance.
God made us in God’s image and God IS love.
Without love, we can’t be ourselves.
We must be compelled by love…
…for God first loved us with painful, unfair, stretching, uncomfortable, challenging, suffering and heart-wrenching love.
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” – Apostle Paul