Don’t hurt love to hurt yourself
“Love is patient, love is kind………… Love never fails. (NIV) 1Corinthians 13:4-8a
The nature of love almost always appears as a mystery. There have been several speculations generally about love. On the one hand, love is questioned for being too giving, and yet, others find love to be a weak thing: “After all, why would I have to let go the big issues as much as the little ones?”(One may ponder, and legitimately so).
But love must be understood for what it is; Love is multi-faceted in its expression. Nonetheless, the course of love is even greater, with a goal of ‘perfection ‘or maturity in our lives (Matthew 5:43-48), for God is love (1 John 4:16).
The author and poet Najwa Zebian beautifully captures an aspect of love that reminds us to deal healthily with love, for our (own) good:
“……If you gave them love and they walked away, let them keep it.
If you gave them time and they walked away, let them keep the memories.
If you gave them days, weeks or even years of your life, let them keep all the love you gave them……
Don’t fight back for it…… Understand that the value of your love does not depend on what others do with that love.
Let them keep what they took. They must have need for it. It must have impacted their lives. You can’t take that away. How beautiful is that?
Even though they gave you pain in return for your love, you still left them with love.”
The greatest hurt (Acts 26:14) perhaps would be to either resist or deny love, for what it is. He who does hurt love tends to hurt himself since we are intrinsically loving beings. May we bask in God’s love and by extension obtain a speedy comeback to Him when we go astray-it is possible! Stay blessed.