Where Is Love?

One of the hardest things in life is to be judged by your peers. The harsh, cruel judging - where you aren’t even given a chance and you are written off as a worthless nobody. It could be about your faith, the way you live, your personal choices, your past, and even the way you look.

You are judged.

You are ridiculed.

You are hated.

You are shut out from the world. You’ve become another dirty little secret no one likes to talk about.

What happened to love? Where is that love that transcends all things, knows no boundaries, overlooks all faults, and blooms life rather than destroys?

Where is the love of forgiveness? You can see a wrong, but you can love the person anyway. Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they are still trying. Maybe you are still trying and haven’t quite gotten there.

Where is the love of compassion? We all know suffering. We all know loss, and you’d think that alone would unite us.

Where is the love of gentleness? Cruel words don’t make you tough - all they do is show the world how broken you really are. Tearing down another person doesn’t make you stronger. It will however, make you colder and more alone.

Where is the love of humility? Saying you are better does not justify you! We have all done wrong. We have all fallen. You know what it’s like. Kind words make a better bridge of healing than heartless, thoughtless ones.

And where, oh where, is the love of grace? Grace to understand a difference, grace to smooth a roughened edge, and grace to conquer hate and fear?

We are supposed to be a people of love; not blind love, not silly love, and not selfish love, but love that is pure.

I may not understand your choices, but I will love you anyway. I hope that you will love me too because I know you can never understand me.

A humble love, that acknowledges we are all the same - humans, struggling to find our identity in a world of ambiguity and darkness.

Where is love?

"If I can speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy
But I don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate
If I speak God's word with power, revealing all His mysteries
And making everything as plain as day
And if I say to a mountain jump and it jumps
But I don't love, I'm nothing
If I give all I own to the poor
Or if I even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr
But I don't have love, I've gotten nowhere
So, no matter what we say, no matter what we believe, no matter what we do
We're bankrupt without love."1 Corinthians 13: 1-3

May the Frets be with you.