Loving hurts.
So should I love
Deeply,
With all my heart and soul?
Loving demands.
So should I love
Selflessly,
With all I have and am?
Loving can be painful.
So how can I love
Deeply and selflessly?
How can I love well
Courageously
Without feeling undervalued
Or taken advantage of?
How can I love
Like Jesus –
With no expectations
And no strings attached?
How can I love
Like the great Lover
Freely,
No questions asked?
Loving well is a gift
To the other.
I can love
With all my heart,
And all I have
Only when
I have received
Deep love from the Lover,
Only when
I have loved
Myself well.
Loving well,
Detached from the longing to be loved,
Sets me free to love
Deeply,
Selflessly,
Courageously,
and
With all of my heart.
Jesus loved well. He could do that because, ‘…Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.’ John 2:24 St. Ignatius of Loyola calls this detachment. He writes, ‘ Our disordered attachment to outcomes gets in the way of loving God, others and ourselves. … Choosing detachment means loving what is.’
Photo by zhang kaiyv: https://www.pexels.com/photo/waterfalls-between-flowering-trees-7224484/