Whatever Happens, Love, Love, Love Some More

If I, for one moment, have the gospel right,

We live by faith and not by sight,

But there’s another thing we can easily miss,

It’s to know that, in love, our life is bliss.

Yes, all to love, it’s the power for hope,

When we verily need the strength to cope,

Whatever happens, learn to look above,

Whatever happens, respond in love.

***

Whatever happens, love is the reason for a good response, love is to be the action, and love is the answer. In situations like these love never fails:

Anxiety

When life is just too hard and difficulties swarm overhead and we just want to scream – climb into compassion for the self and be drawn into the loving embrace of God. Somehow hope underpins us when we surrender and draw near to God. Life isn’t made easier, but our attitudes make it more palatable. Love commands us to get some perspective and to chew life one bite at a time.

Betrayal

When responses of betrayal confound our sensibilities for trust and respect – enjoy the knowledge that even Jesus was betrayed. Instances of betrayal prove to us that we all have the capacity to hurt people. But just because this is so doesn’t mean we should be content with such outcomes for ourselves.

People may hurt us, but our role is to reconcile the hurt with God – absorb it – so we would not be an instrument of hurt; so we would not act in the transference of our anger. Love commands us to ensure we don’t respond as hurt people who hurt people.

Pride

If people think we are wrong yet we know we are right – we pour contempt on our pride and find another way to influence the situation, without needing to resort to manipulation or coercion. Truth and grace are all-sufficient for life; our pride, on the other hand, is a dead-end road. Love commands us to elevate people above being pawns for our ends alone.

Fear

Sometimes we end up so fearful in life; to the point where we see either what doesn’t exist or we extrapolate what we ought to disregard. Again, we have lost perspective. Love commands us to combat our fear with faith. Love heals our fear; it rises above.

***

Whatever happens, love is the reason for a good response, love is to be the action, and love is the answer. Whatever happens. Love never fails. Let us test love, hence, in the way we respond, and we shall see for ourselves that love never fails when we never give up on love.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.