If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:1
After my dad died and before I met Jesus, I wanted love. I wanted it really badly. There was just one small problem, I didn’t really know the full scope of the word love.
When my dad died, my sense of love died with him and so did my “relationship” with God. I lost my anchor. Love became distorted. I became so desperate to be loved, I was willing to accept any twisted version of love that came my way. Over the course of 26 years, I unsuccessfully searched for love. I experienced heartbreak after heartbreak, every one of which added a layer of granite around my heart until I became so hard hearted, nobody could break through my wall. Until I met Jesus.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
CS Lewis
When I met Jesus, I met love. He broke through my hard heart and gave me the courage to begin loving others again. Unconditional love requires courage because, if you’re doing it the right way, you will get hurt. That’s the scariest bit for me. But the beautiful thing is, I’m not doing this love thing alone anymore. It gets easier with each passing day. And with each passing day, even in heartbreak, love makes life worth living. I am so very grateful.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends…
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Be encouraged today friends!