I came across this reflection from my church in Boulder tonight and I can't help but share it. As I'm still getting accustomed to a new city, new people, new school, new places...
I have so many questions about love...what is it? how is it expressed to new people? how is it perceived by those people? how is love experienced by different people? do we really recognize it when it's being sent our way?
Why is love able to pierce the soul and when I don't want to love, God steps in and loves for me. And what a concept to be completely drained, but continued to be filled by a God who calls us to Himself so that He can be glorified in love that conquers and that the world says, "that shouldnt be" and God says, oh but it can be and will. Time after time, I realize my efforts to love are insignificant compared to what God is able to do through me.
Just thinking about love...
"The love for equals is a human thing--of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles.
The love for those less fortunate is a beautiful thing--the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.
The love for the most fortunate is a rare thing--to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.
And then there is love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens and inflicts pain. The torture's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world. "
--Frederich Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat
