Love hurts...

...and not in the way we think of love hurting!! Love hurts us, and it definitely hurts others. At least true love does. Several years ago we decided to read a book called good to great and it had a wonderful premise; too many of us reveal in the minimum, or worse yet, in the middling of what life was truly meant to be. His solution was the part that was the most challenging, something that systems guru Patrick Leconic also stresses; in order to be all you can be, be prepared to leave a few by the road. Not because you don't want them to go, but because they do not want to go. The Scriptures tend to celebrate those who are faithful and the followers, but if you look, one will also see the many who never make it to the promised land, the ones who walk away from the ministry of Christ. And you will also find those who stand in complete opposition, those who attempt to destroy the word of love which heals and brings about holiness. Carlo Carretto has a wonderful explanation of this.

Those who do not love (I very much appreciate his inclusion of choice in this! Failing to overcome the lack of love or a warped love in our lives is mostly a choice) feel superior to others.

Those who love consider themselves as equals to everyone else

Those who love greatly gladly take the lower place

Carretto goes on to explain the results of chasing the challenge of loving greatly;

Those who do not love find death

Those who do love find life

Those who love greatly discover holiness.

When we turn our backs on our ministry, when we deny the potency of the church or community, it is almost always our subconscious sense of superiority exerting itself; humility doesn't lend itself to assessing the work of God which the tools of creation! aasessing Our works, our motivations, perhaps, but even that is dangerous; those who love greatly, those who are seeking the purity of holiness and not the illusion of "image" cannot be judged by those who think that faith is assessed by the eyes, our even the mind. Galli presents us with the reality; love will drive a wedge not because we are seeking "what is right", but because we are scraping and clambering for what is lifegiving, rich and abundant in soul and society.

We say we want true love, but our actions speak a very different story. Most of us just want to be important, and that is not love.

That is where I have stood condemned in my recent ministry reflections; I have longed, with all the trappings of "doing it for God", to be important as a leader, as a clergy, as a person. Time to repent. Time for God, and true love, to be the most important.

How can you transcend the pull to categorize love as being "the most important" in some one's life or attention?