Love 3 - Love is hard work ...

Wednesday, Oct 21, 2009. We often have a very glorified image of love. There are good reasons for that. Love is a miracle and where ever we enter the realm of fresh love, the world will be transfigured. There is some nearly magical prickle when we fall in love. Love is fantastic!

But love is not just the wonderful feeling of the first moments. Love is then changing its form and mature true love will be like a strong stream, like a river which is moving forward with force. Yet, to become such a river, love can be and will be hard work. There is no love which is not challenged, which does not meet difficulties, which is not tested and disputed. There is no path to the strong river, which would not go through the mountains of maturation.

The central sign and symbol of the love of Jesus is the cross. Jesus was clearly aware of the state of mankind. He knew everyone and everything about them. He knew that they all failed to be pure, to be truthful, to be trustworthy and to be like God, the origin and goal of creation. Going into this creation, was hard work for Jesus. He lived among humans, among thieves, murderers, adulterers … among all those habits and words which cause problems and hurt other people. He left his glory and the environment of a wonderful father behind to be with us. Love is hard work.

Then Jesus went to the cross. It was not an accident. It was not a casual thing. It was the goal and purpose of his coming, to suffer and to create an open door for God's salvation. It is the core piece of his love. The cross is pain and suffering. It is hard work. Love can be hard work, it will be hard work when it is moving towards full maturity. Jesus had his high mountains of maturation.

When we fall in love with someone, or with some activity, some profession, some landscape, region or country, or some group of people, or some institution, then we are usually strongly excited. But the time of pure sunshine will pass away and there will be rain, there will be storms, there will be difficult passages to cross. Love which does not have the strength to move through the storm, is a very immature love and will not survive. Love needs to do the hard work as well. It needs the hard times to mature. It needs the difficulties to prove itself to be what it is: real love, true love.

Let your love survive in the times of challenge. How can this happen, when the loved one suddenly seems to be so strange, when the initial feelings seem to have completely vanished? Can I still continue with love, when I do not feel it any more? Love is more than a feeling. It is a state of life, it is not only the warm moment when the sun is there, it is also the decision which I do then, the promises I have spoken. Love is the hard work, which I carry out. It is the patience, which I develop. When pure desire is transformed into pure love, many things will be stripped away. Beauty might pass away, but love will remain. Strength might be destroyed, but love will stay. New strength will come where love discovers that there is more than desire, and it is a miracle that where true love starts, desire will follow, feelings will come back, a new future will arise. Love can be hard work and will be hard work. But after the storm the sun returns. After winter spring comes. When the rain has shaken the house, the clouds will open and we will find ourselves matured and strengthened in a new day of love. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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