LOVE — PEACE & PAIN

A STIRRING OF MEMORY

It seems ironic that the most powerful force in the Universe, Love, should be also a source of some of our deepest pain. It is said that “God is love”. We also know that God allows the deceiver, the accuser, the father of lies, the source of suffering to function in his Creation. This is for God’s unexplained purposes.

Our greatest blessing is Love, and our deepest pain can be caused by love. How do we reconcile this truth? How do we deal with the pain Love can create?

I am attempting to remember the answer. Pain can obscure memory, reason, and authentic feeling. I just finished a very uncomfortable two hours wrestling with this issue. The only current hypothesis I am considering is that, I for one, must when caught in the throws of the pain of lost love, discipline myself to avoid falling into the hole left in my heart and becoming consumed by self pity. I am beginning to remember what true love is.

I’m not speaking of a lost romance. Romance comes and goes, and is generally characterized by a somewhat superficial sort of love. I am speaking of a deeper, more permanent sort of love that, when lost, leaves for a time a gaping hole in our heart, one that time alone cannot fill. The pain is constant, preoccupying, consuming.

So, what to do? I have plunged deeply into the painful thoughts. I analyze, and reason with myself about how did it come about that this deep love is gone. I don’t mean the beloved has died. I speak of when the beloved, for unknown…