1020) Love is a wonderful and tragic thing. On one side of the “coin”, there is joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and more, but the other side holds pain, sometime excruciating pain–at least in this life. As much as I would love to avoid pain, love and pain coexist on this earth and the pain that comes from love is huge.

There is the pain that comes from loving someone who is suffering with illness. There is the pain of betrayal from someone you love and trusted. There is the pain of someone dying whom you loved. There is the pain that comes from someone whom you respect, saying hurtful things to you. There is the need to love and respect yourself, but when you do something stupid, the pain of disappointment is huge. The bottom line is, in this life, pain is a part of love.

Because these types of pain can be so bad, some might be tempted to do anything they can to avoid it. Though this is understandable, if you avoid pain, then you also must avoid what? Yes, you miss out on the love. This also applies to God.

God loves us so much. He put everything into loving us–working everything for our good and yet, the deepest pain he could experience, the death of his son was also necessary. Just think of where we’d be if God sought to avoid pain by keeping his son with him.

Love is painful, but it’s worth everything you put into it. Dare to love. 1 Corinthians 13.