This week's topic is a two-parter, so just bear with me a little. This is something that I've been thinking about a lot in my own personal life lately, so I have a lot to say about it. The topic: love.

Very recently, my relationship with a girl I said I loved came crashing down, and even when I tried to love again, I ended up hurt. I know a lot of people out there reading this understand what it's like to love, not only a boyfriend or girlfriend, but also a friend or family member and then to have that love come crashing down and hurt you in the end. So I bring us now to the age-old question, "Is it better to have loved and lost or to have not loved at all?" But I want to reword it a little. "When you love and lose, is it better to keep loving or to stop loving and be safe?"

I want to bring a song I heard into this. See, for those of you who haven't noticed, I'm using my discussion titles to allude to songs, and this one is one I think you should hear. It's called "Safe" by Britt Nicole. [link]

I was listening to that song, and a certain verse came to mind. 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 says, "If I speak in human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge and I have faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I posses to the poor and give over my body to the flames (hardship) that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing."
To me, that's saying that if you give up on love when it fails you, you become nothing, regardless of anything else you may have in your life. Love fails all of us at some point, but God does not, and if we do what He asks and continue to love, love too will eventually come through for us.

I want you to think about this. I believe that God will never ask us to do anything that He himself wouldn't do first. God's greatest commandment for us is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. The thing about love is that it always gives, and since God will always do what He asks us to do, consider "for God so loved the world that He gave His only son..."

But now I want to move onto the foil of this. If love gives, do you know what takes? It's lust. See, the common misconception is that God cares what you do, but I'm convinced He cares why you do what you do. I hear all the time, and you probably do as well, couples who say they're ready for sex because they're "in love." So when someone asks you as their spiritual leader if it's OK, you can't really give them a yes or no...Because the real question isn't, "Is it OK?," it's "Why do you want to do it?" Is it love? If it's love, then you'll only want to give to that person; you'll only want what's best for them. But if it's lust, then you're taking from that person, something you can't give back.

And that brings me to my next point. When people do cross that line, and even when people just try and fail to love, an enormous amount of pain follows. I know first hand that when you give yourself over to loving one person and it comes crashing down, it feels like you died inside. It's easy to tell someone to get back up when they love and lose, but when it happens to you, you really feel the weight of it. And when you've been with God for so long, hoping and praying that He'll come through for you but then you end up hurt, we sometimes can't understand why God would let that happen. I remember wondering why, after all the faith I gave God, would He still let me hurt like that.

And then one day, I was in my car going home with the radio on, and this song came on. [link] I think this is one of the very best songs ever written, and I know it saved my life. The thoughts that came to me after hearing this...What kind of Christian am I if I give up on God when I hurt? Aren't there people out there going through worse while keeping the same faith? What will happen if I chose to love again?

One of the things I love most about God is that He's the God of all comfort. Even if it's something other than love that's hurt me, pain is pain, and if we stay steadfast to God, we'll be able to get back up and keep going. It's not that God is neglecting us when we hurt; godless people hurt, too, but the difference is that those of us with God can pick ourselves up and keep moving on more easily.

I hope you took something from this. Feel free to keep discussing in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.
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Discussion 2: [link]
Discussion 1: [link]