Love Matters Most!

I recently had someone say to me that they couldn't be in a committed relationship because everyone that was ever suppose to love them, let them down, abandoned them, and hurt them in some unimaginable way. It was just too painful to trust people to love them. I tried to argue and defined the fact that they couldn't conclude that every relationship in life would end up the same way. But for that person, they were convinced that love for them will always be the same. Now even though the individual had felt this way about love for sometime, these "rejections of love" never caused them not to pursue love or enter into relationships with other people. I concluded during the conversation that regardless of our wombs, we all have an innate desire to experience love on some level. In fact, this individual would share this perception of love so as to put the other person on notice as to what to expect from them, or in essence to control the expectations of the relationships. Undeniably, this method would ensure some level of affection from the other person for a period of time at least. However, this individual was not only "holding hostage" the people that hurt them in the past, but the people who were trying to love them in the present were held hostage as well. Under those circumstances, a relationship could not last. Love out of sympathy, obligation or guilt deprives everyone in the relationship the benefits of the possibilities that pure love can bring. So, I said goodbye. You can't love someone past their pain, if they refuse to let go of it.

On Sunday, March 1st, Dr. Spencer shared one of the most relevant messages in our 40 Days of Love campaign. He shared how "love validates our faith." When we allow ourselves to truly experience love, it can transform our lives. It can heal all our pains. It can cause things to grow. The experience of love is two-fold. There is the love that comes from God that's demonstrated without merit or conditions. Then there is the love that we give to others as an acknowledgement of that which we ourselves have been given. "You have to be willing to want love, in order to let go, trust and give yourself over to love" so as to experience and receive love beyond your vulnerabilities.

To know love or to love is to have been loved. "I love Him because He first loved me" (1 John 4:19). The things I remember most in life are the times when someone has shown me love. It's those memories that makes being in ministry possible. Unfortunately, too many of us suffer too often and too long from a bad memory. We remember the wrong things and we forget those things that truly matter most. This week, try remembering more the times someone showed you love first. Let that be the medicine that heals your broken heart, or calms the tension in the room. Remember the one who paid the ultimate price for Love, just for you! Hold onto the things, and people that matter. Hold on to love, for it matters the most!