Love

How difficult it is to give love, without first forcing someone to earn it. Even within the supposed safety of our families, where we stress unconditional love, the pressure to perform for love seeps into much of our interaction. How difficult it is as a parent, when so much energy and effort seems continually focused on instruction and discipline and encouragement, to separate the giving of love from the end results of that day's activities and obstacles. Our displays and declarations of "I love you", too often are attached to the success of a specific endeavor, or at least when we feel we have been appeased. How difficult it is to give true unearned love, even when it is our deepest desire to do so.

Which, of course, makes Easter all that much more incredible, as I reflect on it. That the events of Holy Week, and Easter morning, are an unwarranted display of God's love for me. An undeserved declaration of God's love for the world. No reservations. No requirements. Simply done because I am loved. Simply done because we are loved. By no means does this cheapen this mighty gift of grace. Quite the opposite. It reveals the true depths of God's love, that "while we were yet sinners" he loves us. He loves us, not inspite of ourselves. He loves us, because he loves us.

How do I love without compensation? How do I love without expectation? How do I love as God has loved me? Although I am not God, I believe I am called to love others as he has loved me. And yet, loving others reveals to me, possibly even more than my sins, just how far my ways are from God's ways.