Thought for Today

To love at all is to be vulnerable.

Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly 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 careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or the 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 danger...of love is Hell.

--C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

I took this quote from Captivating, which I have been reading for several weeks now. This book is so intense at times. For example, I was reading it while exercising on the elliptical machine today, and all of a sudden, I found myself in tears. I was casually looking around to see if anyone noticed, but thankfully no one did! This book has had a powerful effect on my life, to say the least. And to think that I gave this book as a gift to two different women before I ever even picked it up to read! I just wasn't that interested at the time. God has his perfect timing, doesn't he?

At times, delving into the issues that Eldredge covers in this book is almost more than I can handle emotionally. Or maybe it's that I thought I had already dealt with some of these issues and now realize that much has still lay dormant in me. Allowing God's healing to continually come in and cleanse you is a heart-wrenching, exhausting process, but one that is crucial I believe.

So...I thought Lewis' quote was especially powerful. When we love, we will be broken. Jesus loved us so much that He allowed Himself to be broken for us. What comfort and peace He gives.