Friday, March 29, 2013

conditional lovers

the world is full of conditional lovers
"I'll love you if you agree with me...."
"I'll love you when you lose 50 pounds."
"I love you because you are beautiful, rich, smart, talented...."
"I can't love you because you are depressed."
"I'll love you  when you help me succeed, when you accomplish this task, when you make a name for yourself."
"I'll love you when you look like me, talk like me, imitate me..."
"I'll love you if you do what I ask..."
"I'll love you when...."
"I can never love you, really, because you aren't like me..."

to find an unconditional lover, we need to go beyond ourselves.
It took the supernatural, the other worldly, the beyond ourselves to express love.
Unconditional love.
Love that says I'll love you for you. In spite of you.  Because of you.  I'll. Love. You.

It took Jesus, perfect, beyond, above,
 to love us at our worst,
because of our worst,
to bring us to our best.

I will never leave you, the bible teaches.
I will never forsake you, it shares.
Nothing can separate us, me, from God's great love, it confides.

The greatest tragedy is missing that kind of love.
Ignoring it.  Rejecting it.  Despising it.

When unconditional love is offered, how can we walk away?