The Risk of Love

With the title The Risk of Love it was easy for me to automatically start thinking about times where time and effort was put into a relationship and then that all thrown away. There are many times that I’ve see friends, family, and even myself get hurt all because of “love”. I liked the Merriam-Webster’s definition of love which states love is “unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.” So if this is the definition of love, why does love hurt people all the time? I think some of the problem might be created by an under importance of the word love. I mean think about it. The same word we use to express feelings towards a person we use to describe how much we like coffee. I love my family. I love Starbucks. We use the same word yet they have two different meaning, at least I hope. I think in a way this minimizes the meaning of love. It distorts the meaning to something less than what it is and what is should be.

While reading it really made me start to think about God’s love for us, a love greater than any love for pizza or coffee or your favorite candy bar. I have thought about this love before and I am so thankful for it. What was new for me this time was thinking about the risk God takes by loving us. This quote stuck out to me from the text “Each one of us is already in a relationship with God before we’ve even thought about it.” Before we even have thought about it, God loves us. So what is God risking? I mean he’s God right, so is he really risking something or is that just what God does? I think he is risking something. I think he is risking that acceptance from us. Not that he is looking to be accepted like when we what to fit into a certain group of friends at school but he wanting us to accept His love for us. Think about when you like something but you’re afraid to tell them. You’re afraid to tell them because you don’t know if they like you back. It might make things weird between the two of you. In our relationship with God, He did that for us before we even knew it. All we have to do is accept His love. When we don’t and we turn away from Him it hurts him. Just like when you lose a close friend and wish you could have them back, He want you to come back to Him.

I think that with love there always will be risk. Even in loving God there comes risks for us. That is why I really liked the definition of love that I found. It is the unselfishness and loyalty in true love that makes it true love. No matter what risks there are or what hard situations you have to face, being unselfish and loyal shows the true love that you have for whatever it may be.

Who We Can Trust

In todays world trust seems to be something difficult for everyone. We can put a great amount of time and effort into a relationship to create this trust and in seconds it can all be lost. Time and time again we build up trust and then it is destroyed. This constant cycle makes it easy for us to believe that easier to just not trust at all. However, there are many things we trust in everyday with out even thinking about it. Just to write this blog post I first trusted that the chair would hold me when I sat down at the table, then trusted that my laptop would turn on, connected to the internet, and I’m now trusting that once I am finished writing it will upload. Why are some things easier to trust than others?

            I agree with Williams in thinking that a great part of this issue has to do will our inability to control. If we can control it then it will be easier to trust. I trust that the chair will hold me because it does every time. It’s not going to move out from under me with by itself. It’s not going to decide “this time when he sits down I’m going to break.”  We have control of it and it is constant so when I sit down I’m going to trust that it will hold me. On the other side if we can’t control it we don’t want to trust it. Humans have a hard time trusting other humans because we don’t know what they will do. We can’t control them. One day they might be your best friend and the next day they decide to hate you. This uncertainty it was drives mistrust in our daily lives.

            This lack of control and uncertainty with humans is the same thing that makes us lose trust in God. When we are uncertain of God’s plan we begin to doubt and lose trust in Him. As Christians we need to strive for a trust that is so strong that no matter what the situation is, we trust that God’s hand is at work. It is possible to never have doubt? I don’t think so. I think that it is something that came sin. The first sin came from doubt from a lie. What is important is that we are always trying to have that trust and understand why we do trust in God. But how do we share or show what trust really is to others who do not claim to be Christians? I believe that this comes by sharing your testimony. By doing so you are able to explain to others why you trust in God and how He has been faithful. I trust God because there have been many times that He provided when I was lest expecting it. Unlike humans that change their mind and are that for you one second and gone in another, He has never let me down. Even though sometimes it is harder than others, I know I can always trust in Him