Love is not enough:
- A loved one at some time will depart from this world. No matter how strong (or weak) the love is, neither side has the capability to determine the time or manner of departing this world. There is only so much “will power” can override the end of bodily functions for life.
- We don’t have capacity for unconditional love. The unconditional loving of another person cannot have no response from the one being loved, unless that response can never be received or expressed. To unconditionally love with the expectation that love is not returned sounds more like an arranged relationship, where “love” is the contractual basis, rather than the emotional capacity of loving.
Being able to love is probably one of the greatest gift; because it means we begin to understand the need to “other” from ourselves. In other words, we recognise other people exist in the sense that they are as interesting to God as we are.
To love means to begin and grow the relationship, it is knowing the other person as much as knowing ourselves, and in doing so, to know ourselves through the lens of the other person. To love also means to accept and decline, to explain and withhold, to protect and let go.
I recalled the other day a loved one told me a long time ago to work in mental health means to love because you know the loved ones will likely not return the love. This is because they are so much in the suffering of their mental health that they are not able to love. The person committed to love them, unconditionally, can break open the window in their hearts to have some relieve from their suffering. They take them a little further from their suffering and begin to be human.
God does not require each us to be perfect, he might also not expect us to “become” perfect, or to have to keep improving in our manners, behaviours, knowledge, relationship etc. Such “betterment” sounds like preconditions for God’s love, and it is not God’s design. It is not God to relate to us that way. Love is enough, and complete, when it is God being and showing the love.
