Have you noticed this? One fact is certain about all meaningful relationships - They will end one day and the ending will be hurt. This thought crossed my mind a few months after we got our dog, Duke. He was just a little puppy (Now He is 2 years old) and as I watched my sons playing with him, I thought, "One day we'll all be crying over this dog because he will die." He's just an animal but all of us think of him more like family than animal. My role at Hospice has brought this thought to a greater level of reality. I've listened to wives cry about their deceased husband, a dad weep over his teenage son, and people endure the dark night of their soul all because they loved someone deeply and that relationship ended in tragedy - Death.
So if you want to escape the tragedy of death, then here's the option: Don't get involved in any kind of meaningful relationship. Stay to yourself. Keep your heart from others. Don't get a pet. Don't have kids. Distance yourself from your parents and siblings. Keep associates at arm's length. Stay away from any meaningful interaction. In short, follow the happy example of Mr. Scrooge.
Yeah, right! You can guard your heart from the certain pain of tragedy or you can take the risk and give your heart away. You can take the risk of loving someone unconditionally. It was Tennyson who wrote, "Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Most of us agree to that, but I don't think we realize that when we choose to enter into a love relationship with someone, it's going to cost us - not only at the tragic end, but all along the way. In the DNA of love is sacrifice. You can't escape this. And yet how many young men and women pledge their hearts to one another only to decide the cost of loving someone is too high?
I came across this quote from C.S. Lewis:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of love is . . . Hell.
So whether you are enduring the pains of loss today or wondering if the price of loving someone is too high, remember it's part of this deal we call life. Take the risk - Love.
2 Comments:
At 12:54 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Before meeting you, I wondered if I would evey call anybody "My Pastor". It is such an honor to call you my pastor. I love you and the whole Pittman family. Thank you for sharing your life with me and my family.
At 5:56 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Bruce I know that in loving the church you risked being hurt. We who call ourselves ministers all have. I am grateful you have been willing to take the risk. I know and believe all hurt will serve a purpose if that is only to make us more like Jesus. God bless, kathy
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