Love Is Forever
Everyone loves a happy ending. Almost all the films we watch about young love intentionally leave us with the feel-good belief that this relationship will last forever. Yes, love is forever. But upon closer observation, reality suggests that we’d have to amend that judgment to ‘sometimes.’ For so much of what at first looks like love turns out to be mere infatuation, or even worse, just being in love with love.
The same is true of friendship. It can have for a while all the appearances of something that will last, and then when a pressure point or moment of stress is reached, it can disappear without a trace. We’ve all had the experience of being abandoned or cut off in broad daylight, and we can only hope that we’ve not done it to others.
Jesus experienced this often! It’s difficult to believe this of such a kind man. But He made strong demands upon those who said they wanted to follow Him. He asked for a single-minded commitment that required demonstrable changes of heart and of life. That’s not the ‘easy salvation’ that some people were looking for then and are still looking for now, and so many walked away.
Walking away is always a temptation, especially when the path is rugged. So many relationships fail because one partner, and sometimes both, simply find it easier to give up.
At that point we’d do well to remember what St Peter said: ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of everlasting life.’
So stay the course. Invest in it. And most of all, don’t turn back!
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
Falling In Love at Clapham Junction
Labels: difficulty in marriages, ideas to help repair marriages, is it better to walk away?, marriage counselling, trying to keep relationships together
posted by Father Bill Haymaker @ 09:23
1 comments
1 Comments:
I think a lot of people think of Christians (or people of any religion) as being a lot of weak-minded easily-led idiots. I don't see it that way myself (obviously). I have enough faith in myself to think that believing in God isn't going to turn me into a wild-eyed fanatic; rationally, one can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God; in these circumstances, it is a no-brainer that it is better to believe than not believe, since only good can come out of believing, and only despair from not believing. If one really saw through the implications of not believing right to the end, the logical thing to do would be to despair and die, but most atheists don't do this, which makes me think that they are not as rigorously logical as they would like to think.
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