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.