The Courage To Love
Why if the heart is the strongest organ in the body does it break so easily? Some things we do not want people to know; we build walls around our hearts. Some things are just too personal to let other people know. Love sees through every wall and barrier we put up. We cannot hide from love or fake it; it sees through everything. That is why it scares us. To love someone is to let them inside our hearts where our true feelings lie. We let only a select few into our hearts trusting them with what is inside. Love takes the best in us and makes it better, it makes us a better person and gives us the power to see all that is good in others. Why then do we back away from love? If we know that love does so many good things to us, why do we not want to feel it? Because we know the consequences it can bring. Not every person we let into our hearts is going to respect what is inside. They may take for granted that we have trusted them. For someone to break our heart after we trusted them is the worst pain in the world. The heart is the emotional organ and an emotional wound is different from a physical wound. There are no Band-Aids to put across our hearts. There is no medicine to take to feel better; only time can heal a broken heart. After our hearts have been broken, it is difficult to accept love again because love is the strongest emotion and its strength scares some of us. We get caught off guard by its immensity and directness because it sees through everything we try to hide. To quote the song, "I Don’t Know How To Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, Yet if he said he loved me/I’d be lost I’d be frightened I couldn’t cope...I’d turn my head/I’d back away/I wouldn’t want to know"
In our hearts we know that there is one person that will make us feel whole. We may think someone in our lives is that person but only our heart will know. If we think with our heads than we will cause more heartache for ourselves, deceiving our hearts into thinking we found our match. If we let our hearts guide our life, we will find that someone with less heartache and sorrow. Even in the dark parts of our lives when we think our match will never come, we must remember that God always loves us. Even through our dark moments when we turn from faith and religion, God does not desert us. To quote the poem Footprints, "Dismayed, the man asked, ‘Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you’d walk with me all the way. Why, at the most troublesome times of my life: the times I needed you most, would you leave me’ The Lord replied, ‘My precious, precious child, I love you and I would never, never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering when you saw only one set of footprints...That was when I carried you’." God never leaves us. Our hearts may think that but God does not turn his back on us.
Along with God, friends also love us. Think of everything you have ever told your friends; things that you would never tell anyone else. Why do we tell them everything about us? Because we love them and trust them. What would happen if your best friend told all of your secrets? We entrust them with our most private thoughts and deepest secrets. Would we take that risk with just anyone?
Not all love is bad and hurtful; not all friends deceive us and tell all of our secrets. Many friends would never tell our secrets no matter how angry they got at us. There is a branch of love that is unmatchable-to be in love with someone. No feeling can equal that the feeling of love. Love takes over all of our body; how else can we explain that you can distinguish their voice through a crowd or that knot in our stomachs even before we know they are there? Nothing beats that feeling when we look into their eyes or the smell of their cologne or perfume. That feeling can make the heart forget everything else. That alone is worth the risk, and gives us the courage to love.
Happy Valentine's Day!