Sarah Nyhan

It takes so much more strength to love. Than to hate.
It takes so much more strength to make peace. Than to fight.

The two are not comparable. The strength it takes to elevate someone is out of this world compared to what it takes to put someone down.

To meet them on their level – there is no glory in that descent.

This is the only thing Jesus asked us to do – Love.

Not convert people. Not change people. No, Love.

Love is by far the most difficult thing to do.

You can’t check out if you’re really going to Love someone. You can’t numb out. You can’t go on cruise control. Your heart, your eyes, your mind have to be wide open.

Love isn’t lust.
Love isn’t interest.
Love isn’t liking someone. You can Love someone and still very much dislike them.
Love isn’t a feeling so much as it is an action.

Love is a confirmation of hope. But you can Love someone even if you are feeling hopeless.

If you’re asking what the other person is doing for you or can do for you, then you are entering or have entered a transaction. True Love is not a transaction.

True Love isn’t a ledger. True Love is who you are. True Love is what you give; not what you take.

True Love is respecting yourself in and through it all.

True Love is honesty. Is believing so much in the other person that even when it will be difficult you honor and respect them by telling the truth.

True Love is trusting in Trinity. That you are Created by, in, and through Love. That there is a bigger story. That we don’t have to destroy each other in order to thrive.

But if you couldn’t fully trust your biological father’s heart then it would understandably be difficult to believe God cares about you enough for you to not have to take from other people.

I can only show up if I believe it all works out in the end. If I believe I matter. And what we do matters. Otherwise Love is scary. And stupid.

I’m not good at Love. But deep down under all the crap piled onto me is a child who was born very good, who still remembers. Who’d like to be set free in order to fully be. Because Love is Life. Love is the point of Living. Love is the most difficult thing but without it everything else is a lot less, little.

Will we open up our beaten hearts again? Will we give it all we got? Will we, if not believe in ourselves, at least believe in Love being better than the alternative. If there is any real chance.

Easier said than done, eh?