It's not so easy to love others as Jesus loves us. If we do like that, then there won't be hurt for whatever the reason. Some say love does not hurt, others say love hurts. TRUE LOVE which proceeds from the love of Christ never hurts, but heals, comforts, consoles, guides, protects, etc. But human love hurts, breaks our heart, feelings, emotions, sometimes tears apart and even kills. How do we understand the different between these two. There can be many differences. Divine Love demands sacrifice from oneself, but human love demands sacrifice from others. To say in other words, Divine Love love always gives, and human love always gets. Divine Love respects, human love expects.
When we love with expectation that makes us to be attached with someone whom we love and makes us to be dependent on that person. As we know, practically, experiencially no human can fulfill the desires or expectations of other as they want it to be. Because every human love is self seeking by nature. Most human love proceeds with self interest, seeking some benefits from others. You may agree or may not agree but honestly if you analyze your love for others you will find whether your love for others is Divine Love or human love. divine love will not lament over the separation of the loved ones, because Divine Love never gets separated. But human love gets hurts, and laments over the separation of the others because with the lose of that person it loses something what it expected, it can be physical, material or emotional.
Then, how to love others with this Divine Love? Is that so difficult? No, not at all. It seems to be difficult but it's not so difficult, because Jesus made it easy for us by giving an example in loving others as God loves us. He said and lived, "There is no greater love than this, to give one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13). Divine Love will be always ready to die for others. Hu... that's not so easy, right? How can we die for others, especially when they are strangers? So, it's difficult to achieve this Divine Love, is it not? No, it is not. To understand the simplified version of Divine Love we need to follow the Golden Rule, "Do to others as you would have others do to you." (Luke 6:31) It's just as simple as that. When we like others to love us, we take the first step to love them, when we want others to understand us, first we try to understand them. If we don't want others to humiliate us or scold us, let us not do that to others. If we want others to help us when we are in need, let us do it first for others. The important thing is that we need to do all these things without any kind of expectations.
We do all these things not because of the people but because of God, we love God so we do all these things as he asked us to do. We help someone not because they will help us back, but because God has said that whatever we do to the least of these children, we did it to him. (Matthew 25:40) We love someone not because they will love us back but because God loves us and asks us to do the same, "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 13:34). We accept, respect, forgive, forget not because that we expect anything from others, but because we love God and he asks us to be like him and nothing else. We try to love everyone with the love of God. And that love is, "Love is patient, kind, without envy. It is not boastful or arrogant. It is not ill-mannered nor does it seek its own interest. Love overcomes anger and forgets offenses. It does not take delight in wrong, but rejoices in truth. Love excuses everything, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love will never end." (1Corinthians 13:4-8)
Now, when we start loving others as Jesus loves us, he will bring many people, even the people whom we never expected, into our friendship; that time we should be careful that we don't attach any expectations with it. If we try to have any expectation then we will fall back into hurt, break up and frustration. When we love with the love of the Lord, we need not to expect anything, because we will not have anything in need because everything will be taken care off even before we think about them. So, there won't be any expectations, attachments and so no hurts. So, now you can LOVE WITHOUT HURTS.
"I have just given you an example that as I have done, you also may do." (John 13:15)
Let us not forget that whatever we give up or lose for the sake of God will never be a loss, but will always come back to us in manifold. "It is in giving that we receive." (St. Francis of Assisi)
May the love of God speak with us, fill us, heal us, comfort us, guide us in ways that are level and smooth. "My love to all in Christ Jesus." (1Corinthians 16:24)
No comments:
Post a Comment