Love Perfected

We have a skewed perspective of love.
True love, in its highest form, is not about self-gratification, but about giving to others. It's not about what you feel, but about what you do. That is not to say that there are no other forms of love. For example, we might say we love pizza, but not for the pizza's well-being. It's because...well, the pizza meets our needs--or wants, at least. Out love of pizza is a selfish love--which is fine, because that is why pizza exists: for our pleasure.
But people are not pizza. Love for people requires something higher, nobler, more perfect: even selfless, in its most perfect form. It means a following-through of loving actions regardless of how you feel. It is not about you, but about the object of your love. Jesus showed us the perfection of love: he gave himself, a willing sacrifice, for us. In its most perfect form, love requires vulnerability and trust.
C.S. Lewis said, "To love is to become vulnerable, to risk suffering. If you want to make sure your heart is not broken, don't give your heart to anyone. Then it will become unbreakable, impenetrable."

Jesus is the purest example of love in its highest form: He hung on the cross, in our place, for our sin--because he loved us perfectly. Did he want to lay out His heart to be scorned and trampled like so much waste, to be abandoned and tormented? Was it unbearable? Were those he loved faithful, or did they betray him, mock Him, run like cowards? And did He withdraw His love? If he had, we would have died. But he did not. Until the final breath was dragged from His lungs, the final insult thrown into the air, he remained faithful.

So a choice is now given us, second by second, over and over: we can hide our hearts and never truly love, or we can be set free to love despite all. We can hold on to wanting only our own happiness, searching forever until night falls and we find we are alone--or we can run from the lie of living for ourselves and give ourselves away instead. We have been bewitched by a lie that binds us in chains--and we have the chance of denouncing it and truly living.

What will you choose? Know the truth, and be free.

(This post was inspired from and partly quoted from a sermon at Pierce Chapel on Palm Sunday of 2009: "The Cross: Love Perfected.")