The Risk of Love, the Face of LOVE

 C.S. Lewis said:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around your 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. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. (The Four Loves, chapter 6)

 Love is not just a risk in life.  When you love, you openly invite the  certainty of pain to your life.  God made us to love because we were made in His image..and we all know that God is love. It's our divine function. We must remember that God required such intense suffering of His own perfect son..whom He loved... to accomplish a holy purpose, and He had a purpose for us in the pain He allowed in our lives...  What is that purpose? I  have already stated it.... to make us look like Christ. 

When a carver creates a duck out of a block of wood, he eventually gets a wooden duck.  How does he do that?    "It is easy...He just took off everything  that didn't look like a duck". That is what God is doing with us. He is taking everything off of us that doesn't look like Jesus. It is painful and ...it is scary, but it is less scary when we truly believe we have a Loving Father..holding our hand in the dark and ........when we believe it  really isn't darkness to Him.  So often, He uses pain to do this... pain concerning the ones we love (illnesses, hurt feelings, death, illnesses, etc). Loving God means trusting Him with all that we currently are, and  with all the relationships He has given us.    Too often, we risk the pain of having to let go of what we want in exchange for what He has planned for us.  In our humanness, we want our way, but of course we know  ..at least intellectually that His plan is best.  Sometimes it means having to risk obedience...risk loving...risk hurting in order to follow God's calling and hoping  that  things turn out the "right way".   However,  the RIGHT way that God allows or chooses (still don't know which I really believe)   for something to turn out is not  always the way that we hoped for... at the time when we put our heart out there.

All the way back in Genesis, humans showed their tendencies to want to be the boss, to be 'god' ..to be in control. Loving  God means having to take the risk of relinquishing that control to God who does not  give us a step -by -step account of what His plans are for us.    (I am still looking for the "Life Plan for Rachel" in the Bible...just isn't laid out in detail).    Despite knowing that His ways are immeasurably higher than ours, giving up control and trusting God with the outcome is always hard.

C.S. Lewis's quote shows that there will be risk of pain and loss in any attachment, whether it's romance, family, friendship, pets, or some other relationship.  It might be divorce, a broken friendship, a betrayal of a friend....   Or it can be the pain that comes when you love dearly... The pain of a shared ordeals, shared suffering, and the near-certainty that one of you will die before the other. To care for another is to risk being hurt, if nothing else, on their behalf, because when the people you love hurt, you also hurt.   

  True love takes courage. Look to the face of love for our model of love- Jesus.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord you God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1b-3a)

O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress. (Jeremiah 16:19)

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3)

Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. (Jeremiah 32:17)

See, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me? (Jeremiah 32:27)

Your father knows what you need before you ask him. So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:8b, 31-34)

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11: 28-31)

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight. But even the hairs of your head are all counted. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. (Luke 12:6-7)

Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest. (Luke 12:25-26)

Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. (John 15:4-5,7,10)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 31b, 35, 37-39)

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:6-8)

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation . . . . I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4: 12-13)

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his son is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42: 5,8)

JESUS ...our FACE of LOVE