Love: The Promise of Pain

"Ironically, Jesus was crucified not in spite of His love, but because of it. Somehow love incited both love and hate with equal force...
Anyone who chooses the barbarian way will learn quickly that love and sacrifice cannot be separated. This is perhaps why so many of us who know love fear love. We know that love is not the absence of pain. If anything, love is the promise of pain. No one has loved more deeply than God. Has anyone ever been more betrayed? God would not know suffering if He did not know love. But because He is Love, He chose to suffer on our behalf. Without love there is no glory in suffering."-- The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus

I am blown away by this statement! WOW! I never took the time to think about how love drove God and Christ to the ultimate sacrifice. Or even that His love led Him through the most pain anyone could ever undergo.

I guess where I'm really going with this is that I normally think of loving someone as being the greatest thing I could possibly bestow on someone and that would mean they are going to love me in return, not hurt me, want to take care of me as I would of them (and I am by no means stating that I am perfect in this...I definitely come short of truly loving someone...anyone). (dang this isn't coming out how I would want it to at all....hopefully you can follow me)

I don't normally equate love with pain. I don't normally think, "When I love this person and give my all that I am capable of, I am going to be hurt." But that is what happens. Maybe not all the time, but frequently the ones you love hurt you. They say things that bring pain, they lie, they cheat, they leave you for someone else. The list could contain a million possibilities and still not be complete.

And that list has been endured by Christ to the fullest extent: He bore all betrayals to the worst of the worst on the cross all because He wanted us to have a relationship with God. He knew that loving would mean ultimate pain.

I think we see and know this when we read of Christ's sacrifice but what is funny is that we say we are willing and ready to follow Him but don't think about how much we really have to lose (according to this world). We don't prepare ourselves for the rejection that is bound to take place so that He may be glorified and that His love may abound. And even many times, it is the rejection that plants the first seed necessary for God's work to abound even more (not that God can't do it on His own, it is just the method He has chosen [thank you God! may I and those following you not take this blessing lightly]).

You know, I'm not sure I'm comprehending this 100% as I'm typing out my thoughts so there are probably many gaps and I'm not sure I have the ability to type it all out so...maybe I should recommend you read The Barbarian Way (I recommend it even if God does give me the words for this post) because it definitely opens up ideas that I think many of us never take time to really soak up.

I know I run from the pain many times or take it as a sign that I've done something outside of God's will. I ask the question, many times, "Why God? Why so much pain if I'm following your will for my life? What am I doing wrong?" The irony of it is that I should be thanking Him, because many times the pain experienced is because I have begun to love someone only the way He gives me the ability to thus they have thus experienced God's love.

Ugh....I think I'm going to stop here for now because I feel as though I'm butchering this thought process and I really want it all to come out in a clear manner...if you have any thoughts on this please feel free to comment!