“Joy.”

. H,

There is this tension between looking at the world as it is and the world as it will be in the fabled “fullness of time”. We are constantly shutting off from the great dark across the face of the earth to find small spots of light were things work a little better and there is a little less tragedy staring us in the face. In fact the great comfort of church and family is that we can create out of the chaos of the world around us an oasis of calm and a place where things make sense.

There is nothing wrong with this.

However, it is not the full story. Sometimes, love really is pain and facing the pain around us. It is not that love should be dark and morbid and give us that strange satisfaction from sad love songs of the corny persuasion. It is that love is the answer to all that muck (well, except corniness, there is no cure for that sand trap). We should be bolder in our expression of love as a light in the dark.

Now, we have these fears. Reasonable in present context. How much should we love? How much can we give? Will we not be used? How much will it hurt to truly love? Where should we spend our love for great returns? These are the questions of balance and serenity we seek before we love. We have been told there is a prim and proper way to love and live. There is not. We have been told we need to balance these things for safety and levity. There is no balance in God. It is an all or nothing thing. It is light or dark, hot or cold and in or out. We should not mistake the pilgrim’s progress we are in for the capitulation of careful love. There is no such thing. This will cost you everything. You will not be free of pain. You will learn to count it as joy.

As the great poet says:

So you hit the lights/ and I'll lock the doors
Let's say all of the things/ that we couldn't before
Won't walk away/won't roll my eyes
They say love is pain,/well darling, let's hurt tonight
If this love is pain/then honey let's love tonight

Or something to that effect. Love is messy, love is pain, and to care is to have

your heart broken over and over again. There is nothing wrong with the

 sensitive soul. There is no such thing as feeling too much. Broken hearts are

 the best hearts. There is a joy ahead in the fields of eternal healing and rest. 

There is always space for them in the great arms of God.