Love Until It Hurts

After the pain we have endured from past heartbreaks and betrayals. After the constant disappointment that comes when another person doesn’t appreciate or doesn’t reciprocate. After being vulnerable time and time again to be crushed right back into our shell- back into our comfort zone where we can no longer get hurt. After the suffering of giving ourselves to someone only to be rejected in some form. We are scared to give our whole selves.

We need to avoid pain, betrayal, and deeper feelings all together. We play it safe because we want to control our lives and our emotions, but in doing this we lower our capabilities to love and to truly be human. We play it safe because we need to avoid pain- we need to numb ourselves because rather than feeling hurt, it’s better to feel nothing at all.

In the midst of all the walls we put up in our heart, we forget how we are meant to love. We can’t love with fear.

We want to be like Jesus. We want our words to be His words. Our hands to be His hands. Our feet to be His feet.

We want our influence to be His influence. We want to be Jesus in a world that doesn’t know Him.

The way we will be different than any other person, is by the way we love- but, we are too scared to love like Jesus did. We don’t want to be His heart in a world that needs it because to have His heart means He will have to transform our human heart in a way that will hurt.

It will cause a stretch that may bring unasked suffering. It will cause changes within ourselves and a giving up of things we may not want to give up yet.Because, to love like Jesus is to love with no self-interest. It is to love in a divine way that doesn’t count but just gives. One that gives it all, but doesn’t expect anything in return.

Only when we are willing to open our heart, to give ourselves. Only when we open ourselves to pain, suffering, and betrayal can we truly love, because love doesn’t care about those things. Love doesn’t measure, it just gives.

No one saw in Christ's humanity alone that he was God, but he proved He was God in the way He gave himself totally and relentlessly to the least and the lowly.

In the way He forgave. In the way He never held a grudge. In the way he gave HIS WHOLE SELF.

He proved He was God in the way He loved.

We want to live like Christ. We want to be Christ to the world, but we don’t allow ourselves to love like Him. The only way we can truly be like Christ is when we prove to the world we are His and He is in us. We can only prove this to the world- we can only be Christ to others- when we stop being afraid to love like Christ. Only when we love in a way that requires sacrifice.

Only when we love in a way that we DIE (to ourselves)- are we like Christ. He wants us not to be His mouth, not to be His eyes, not to be His hands and feet.

HE WANTS US TO BE HIS HEART. He wants us to bring His love to others.The only way we can give Love is when we know love. We only know TRUE love when we know Christ totally. We need to empty ourselves of our fear, of our hatred, of our doubts, of our numbness, of our safety, and of our comfort so He can fill us with His fearless, all pursuing, all powerful, all transforming, all relentless, all sacrificial LOVE.

Man can only love so much with the heart He is given. Man can love like Christ when He allows Christ to put His own heart within us.

Wholehearted, devout Christians have a special capacity to love and that is because they know love.

Friendships and relationships are more fruitful and intentional when you allow yourself to love as Christ did.

When love for a person surpasses the fears of betrayal and hurt, it is true.

Jesus loved so much He gave himself knowing that all of us would spit on His face and betray Him each day.

Knowing he would get hurt- to the point of DEATH- He still choose to love.

By the Grace of God lets no longer choose isolation. Let’s no longer choose complacency. Let’s no longer choose fear. By the Grace of God- by his Sacred Heart in the place of our hearts- let us choose to love every day, every hour, every minute, every second.May the Holy Spirit give us the courage we need to love even in the risk of getting hurt. May the Holy Spirit give us the understanding of God’s unfathomable love for us when He gave himself on the cross.

May the Holy Spirit transform our hearts into the Sacred Heart of Jesus so we may always overcome fear and comfort- and instead, choose a radical, earth shaking, transformative love.

Let Him show you what love is. Only then can you model that love, by his Grace.

Only when we are free from fear, do we become free to love.

“Perfect love cast out fear.” -1 John 4:18