Synchronization

Photography by Madison McQuary

Lesson I am learning:

Love and pain are synchronized in their infinite duty to offer the human race something more than human, something more than earthly, more than the dust beneath your feet and the nuclei in your cells, something that only could have been fabricated by the tactful fingers of God Himself. They feed off of one another, they fuel one another. Love without pain is futile, while pain without love is only suffering.

This means going against our natural instincts. Love means putting yourself on the altar and watching as the flames of sacrifice lick your skin. The pain is great. The love is greater.

With love, we are aware of all the hazards and risks, but we continue.

Those who say it is likely to love without at least the possibility of hurting, have not really loved.

They speak of a safe kind of "love" which is actually an illusion we have created to satisfy our mortal cautions. It is barren of any true merit or strength. Every day it robs people of the actual gift that authentic love is destined to be. Many people feel a few tingles in their stomach and a faster heartbeat, and then translate those fleeting sensations as love. But they are terribly wrong.

They are infatuated, yes. Not in love. I am not saying what they feel is incorrect, or morally inappropriate, I am only pointing out the fact that it is an entirely separate concept than that of love. This attraction that one might feel for another, however enjoyable and wonderful it might be, is in no way love.

This idea of love does not exist. There is only one true form. It was conceived by one incident only. The rending of one heart. The ripping and piercing of one flesh. The breaking of one bread. A single death and resurrection where the veil of the temple was torn in two pieces and the lives of many were liberated from the furnace of hell and the bondage of sin.

This love, characterized by pain, is a powerful, burning, earth shattering matrix of tenderness and care. This love is liberation. It is a privilege, an immunity, a promise.

This love is the gospel.

Photography by Madison McQuary

"People don't like love, they like that flittery flirty feeling. They don't love love - love is sacrificial, love is ferocious, it's not emotive." -Matt Chandler