Strength to Love Again

“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7 NLT)

My spiritual mentor prayed it into the phone, a couple hundred miles could not muffle her love for me. “Don’t let her be afraid to love well.” How did she know it’s been a wrestle recently?

It’s been strange, because loving well isn’t usually tough for me. If anything, I have a tendency to pour myself out for others and mop up the mess later. But I hadn’t yet experienced double-piercing of betrayal and deep injustice. Two punctures in a single heart tend to bleed twice as profusely and think long and hard before loving again.

I think about Jesus, and how my heart has intertwined with His in this past season. The Rock of Agony still reminds me of our common travail. What an honor, to share the stone slab of suffering with my Savior.

Jesus was betrayed with a kiss; with a sign of deep respect, honor and love. What a slap in the face as He had just been sold out for 30 pieces of silver. The human response to such an affront is to wall up, to throw up thick boundaries around the heart as fast as possible, to keep what we have to ourselves. Yet, this is not what Christ did. With full foreknowledge of Judas’ intentions, He took the higher road, the one that made way for relationship again.

“Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1b NIV)

His disciples were in the world and the world was in them. They were still, by all accounts, broken people battling selfishness, pride, grabs for control and greed. Yet, Jesus knew His time was limited and He chose to love His imperfect people to an unjust end. Not only did He decide to love, He got up from the table, from a posture of rest, and He served His disciples. He kneeled and He washed their feet.

I am reminded that we love people who are still in the world. They might be following Jesus, they’ve maybe even abandoned their nets on His behalf, but they still battle their own brokenness. It’s ok, because so do we. Yet living in community with broken people is not license to stop loving. As followers of Jesus, we realize real love is always required of us, even if it’s never offered in return. Love is the trademark of the Kingdom. It is how the world will know that we are the real deal.

“No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.” (1 John 4:12 NLT)

Love is how we are first changed, and then again, how the world might change through us. To give up on love is to give up on God. The world needs the One we’ve experienced, and the way they’ll experience Him is through our own surrendered, loving lives.

“To love another person is to see the face of God.” Victor Hugo

Loving others is transformational for them, but also for us. We cannot afford to give up on that, no matter how much it hurts.

Lord, today we agree with my on-point friend. May we possess the courage to love well again. May we take our wounds, our betrayal to the One who heals all hurts. May we keep doing this until the pain subsides and the wound closes completely. May we experience fresh revelation of Your love, strength, compassion and grace. May Your power restore us from the inside out. May we be so filled with Your Spirit that loving comes as easily as breathing, because love is who You are. Amen.