Love Hurts...

"Love hurts sometimes..." a friend posted recently and suddenly the thoughts that have been downloading in my heart on this subject the last few years needed a place to go. So here I am...writing them out.

Love hurts. It hurt all the way thru the crowds that pressed around Him needing things from Him but not giving back...just taking, taking, taking. Love hurt all the way thru the mob of people that wanted to kill him on numerous occasions...the people who gossiped about Him, who scorned his words, who argued with Him and who rejected Him. Love hurt all the way to a court room where He was lied about, and where people screamed to crucify Him...where He was beaten and mocked and spit upon. Love hurt thru that long, dark night while He prayed fervently in deep agony to His Father over the events that were coming, while His closest friends sank on the ground in deep sleep, unable to support Him in His sorrow while He sweated great drops of sweat like blood. Love hurt thru the deeply wounding act of a disciple denying his friendship with His Lord, even tho just hours before he had declared that he would never deny Him. Love hurt all the way to an old, rugged Cross where He was hung by huge nails that held him, suffering and bleeding while people walked around looking at him in His shame. Love hurt thru the deep sorrow and thirst that overtook Him while His mother cried at the foot of His cross and His disciples hung in the shadows, afraid to be known of others that they were His friends. Love hurt and then surrendered in death to be a ransom for the sins of the whole world.

Love hurts. It hurts while parents decide that their fervently godly adult children are not of God because they do not choose to live in the same 'administration' (details of practice of the same doctrinal belief as each other too!!!) and choose to ignore them and act like they do not exist or are not worth anything because of this.

Love hurts. It hurts when others falsely accuse you and say evil things about you because they want to control your life and you are following God's plan, which is a different plan than they would choose for you.

Love hurts. It hurts when others speak unkindly to you or treat you like dirt because they won't refuse to acknowledge Jesus in you.


Love hurts. It hurts when families are broken because people are unfaithful at their post and leave the door wide open for the devil to come in and taunt you and try to ruin you through their unfaithfulness.

Love hurts. It hurts when the brokenness of others lives comes into your own in full force as you reach out loving hands to smooth the salve of God's grace over them as He brings them to you.

Love hurts. It hurts as the reality of the narrow road and the few fellow travelers becomes reality the more you walk in the quiet ways of Jesus. While others are seeking fame and fortune, a name and good time, you are doing God's work and feeling the exhaustion of reality hit you as Jesus' words become real: "The fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few".

Love hurts. It hurts in deep loneliness as many are not willing to share hearts in Christ and refuse to get real in spiritual things. To them, it appears to be all fun, surface stuff and no interest in the things of the heart...and you wonder just where the fellowship of the saints is...

And then we remember Jesus. And that love hurts. And that the servant cannot be greater than His Lord. And gladness comes rushing in like a flood, joy thru the pain. In tears I weep at Jesus' feet and thank Him that I can be like Him in just a small measure.

Take heart. He has overcome the world...thru love that hurts.

*details of 'hurts' listed above are taken from life's experiences that I am privy to, whether in my own life or in the lives of those God has brought to me to minister to. They are not all my own.