love.

Love. It is costly, invasive, and beautiful. 

I was listening to a sermon this morning on my drive into the office and these words poured over me and coated my heart. It’s so true, and also such an important reminder. I think we prefer to live in the levity that love feels good. But the truth is love requires much. The more people we love, the deeper we walk with those people, the more potential there is for pain, for suffering. At times there is a need to embrace the hard, and yet so often that is where the most profound beauty and ultimate joy is found. 

Love costs much. It requires time. It invades our lives and demands sacrifices. And yet it is our honor to show up in the moments of sorrow, to cry the tears that shake us to the core, to hold the hands of our loved ones in their darkest hour. We get to laugh with them and smile until it hurts when they experience the very best life has to offer, and I want to be there when life seems to be crumbling and crushing down upon them. I am a believer in staying. I want to be there to stand in the storm and weather it hand in hand regardless of how long the dark clouds appear overhead and the torrents seem to rage on. 

I have to believe that love, real love looks different “love is choosing to serve someone, and be with someone in spite of their filthy heart. Love is patient and kind. Love is deliberate. Love is hard. Love is pain an sacrifice, it’s seeing the darkness in another and defying the impulse to jump ship.” I will stay. Regardless of the cost, regardless of how much it invades, because it is beautiful and it offers more than anything else in this life ever can. Because He loved us, we also love one another. 

So I choose love. fiercely. bravely. compassionately. relentlessly. and with every single ounce.