Is love really worth dying for?
Many believe that pain is the absence of love, comfort and happiness. To see a loved one depart to an eternity with Christ, to let go of your High School class after graduation, to experience the empty-nest syndrome after seeing your kids going out to college or getting marry are some of the many examples to affirm that pain isn't necessary a negative thing in life.
I'm more than convinced that in this life you grow not only by addition (positive experiences in life), but also by subtraction (not so positive experiences in life). As a generation, we don't even know where to begin the conversation when it comes to pain and suffering. Our world is radically experiencing some of the most challenging realities in the history of human kind. Yet, would it be possible that God is allowing some of the most painful realities from personal to global encounters to recapture the humanity that got lost in the journey of life?
I'm far away to proclaim that I know what pain and suffering is in life. Thus, God has awaken, through His Spirit, an undeniable reality and ability to cry and weep with those who cry and weep around me. People I grew up with in my early years have been recently affected by the reality of organize crime in Mexico. Families that I learned to love and embrace are now incomplete due to unnecessary suffering, pain and agony. I don't know the answer to our current suffering. I get the impression that most of it is self-inflicted: humans abusing humans.
1 Samuel 19-20 reminds us the two ways suffering and pain can be faced even today: (1) by focusing on who and what creates suffering, pain, desperation, etc. Thus simply digs us deeper into the reality of our misery and what it looks irreversible or (2) we can also be proactive and understand that maybe, from the moment we decided to love, pain and suffering unavoidably join the experience of giving one-self in love to others through relationships.
It seems that David had no control of Saul's hatred and determination to kill the former shepherd boy. In the midst of his desperate situation, David decides to focus and rely on the love and protection of Jonathan. The deeper the hatred from Jonathan's father, Soul, the deeper David trusts and loves Jonathan - even beyond what is expected in a relationship. Could it be possible that our current pain and suffering has moved beyond the physical and emotional part of our lives that has literally taken and stolen our ability to love and trust God and others?
May the God who loved us so much to the point of death, and death on a cross revive and restore our humanity so we can learn to love like David and Jonathan...even if our lives are at risk.
I'm more than convinced that in this life you grow not only by addition (positive experiences in life), but also by subtraction (not so positive experiences in life). As a generation, we don't even know where to begin the conversation when it comes to pain and suffering. Our world is radically experiencing some of the most challenging realities in the history of human kind. Yet, would it be possible that God is allowing some of the most painful realities from personal to global encounters to recapture the humanity that got lost in the journey of life?
I'm far away to proclaim that I know what pain and suffering is in life. Thus, God has awaken, through His Spirit, an undeniable reality and ability to cry and weep with those who cry and weep around me. People I grew up with in my early years have been recently affected by the reality of organize crime in Mexico. Families that I learned to love and embrace are now incomplete due to unnecessary suffering, pain and agony. I don't know the answer to our current suffering. I get the impression that most of it is self-inflicted: humans abusing humans.
1 Samuel 19-20 reminds us the two ways suffering and pain can be faced even today: (1) by focusing on who and what creates suffering, pain, desperation, etc. Thus simply digs us deeper into the reality of our misery and what it looks irreversible or (2) we can also be proactive and understand that maybe, from the moment we decided to love, pain and suffering unavoidably join the experience of giving one-self in love to others through relationships.
It seems that David had no control of Saul's hatred and determination to kill the former shepherd boy. In the midst of his desperate situation, David decides to focus and rely on the love and protection of Jonathan. The deeper the hatred from Jonathan's father, Soul, the deeper David trusts and loves Jonathan - even beyond what is expected in a relationship. Could it be possible that our current pain and suffering has moved beyond the physical and emotional part of our lives that has literally taken and stolen our ability to love and trust God and others?
May the God who loved us so much to the point of death, and death on a cross revive and restore our humanity so we can learn to love like David and Jonathan...even if our lives are at risk.
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