Exploring this LOVE Thang: Part 3

I've heard it said too numerous times to count; "love like you've never been hurt". What?!?!? Who wants and can do that? What kind of advice is that? Tell that to the person who's been abused, cheated on, humiliated, or abandoned. To make matters worse, it seems like the people who often give this advice have never experienced a level of hurt that echoes the person they are advising or either have had a considerable amount of time between their last "love" disaster. This type of advice seems like a millionaire telling a homeless person to not think about how broke they are. Do you see what I'm trying to say? Let's be real when love is good it's GOOD. But when love is bad, it down right SUCKS!

All of us have experienced at some point relational disappointment. Whether it was romantic, professional, familial, interpersonal or other. Anytime you let someone into your life it comes with a certain level of risk. And while we are all too familiar with the level of risk and potential hurt loving others can bring, we all still secretly or openly want to be loved and to genuinely share it with others. But "love like you've never been hurt" still seems like bad advice.

I was all too certain of this school of thought until I read 1 Corinthians 13:7-8."Love ALWAYS protects, ALWAYS trusts, ALWAYS hopes, ALWAYS perseveres. Love NEVER fails." It feels like God is saying to "love like you have never been hurt" by the continued use of the word "always". But how can we do that?

1) The Love of God is a command and a call to action. The feeling derived from loving someone should never precede the command and action of loving. Love the verb sometimes walks alone. In other words, sometimes we are called to love people who we believe are "undeserving" and unappreciative of our love. I liken it to waking up in the morning and not feeling like going to work. If most people operated solely based upon their feelings they would never go to work and sadly to say while their job at work may go undone in the long run, after being fired from their job, they would ultimately only hurt themselves.

2) Love didn't hurt you- a person, people or unrealistic expectations did. To hate love, as a result of being hurt while loving, is like having no more use for money after loaning a person money who fails to pay you back. Money nor love caused the deficiency.

I pray you never experience again the pain caused by "love gone wild". I also pray you never intentionally take advantage of someone because they love you. Whether you are the victim or the victimizer what God has spoken is true- LOVE NEVER FAILS!