Learning to love is the most vital, yet, for some, the most difficult lesson in Christianity. One woman wrote: "All of us have at least one person in our lives who needs love, even though they don't deserve it. We want to be able to love them, but we sometimes don't know how to go about it or how to get past the pain inflicted on us by that 'undeserving' person. Helpful solutions are needed in dealing with those people we consider 'albatrosses' in our lives."
Only love can destory an enemy. Love is the one eternal, indestructible force for good. However, when love is conditional, it isn't love at all. Indeed, the only way we can demonstrate true unconditional love is when they don't deserve it! Perfection is in the love, not in the person being loved. God loves us, not because we're good, but because He's good.
We were born to love; it is in our very natures. It is only when we resist our natural inclination to love---when we employ the love of power rather than the power of love---that we experience turmoil in our relationships. Paradoxically, the less we try to control others, the more real influence we will have in their lives. We must give up all of our excuses not to love.
Cheryl Carson, admittedly, grew up a modern-day Pharisee---totally committed and strictly obedient to God's commandments, focusing on the outward manifestations of righteousness. But life humbled and taught her. Through painful experience she learned that successful gospel living is not measured by how many rules we keep, but by how much we are like Christ. That we are as perfect as we are loving. That faith makes all things possible, but love makes all things easy. That only by learning to love can we experience peace, joy, and wholeness. Keeping the Law is vital---but we must realize that His Law Is Love.
