Shakespeare on Love

Time for some Shakespeare Quotes:

"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Love is holy."

 

Love's Constancy

 A 13th Century mystic, Hadweijch of Antwerp, wrote a beautiful poem:

Love's Constancy

Anyone who has waded

Through Love's turbulent waters,

Now feeling hunger and now satiety,

Is untouched by the season

Of withering or blooming

For in the deepest and most dangerous waters,

On the highest peaks,

Love is always the same.

(quoted on page 63 + 64 in Quiet Prayer by Marie Chapian)

No Loss in Love

 There is no loss in love...

love is the reward, the gain, if only in your heart.

What do you think your life depends on?

 Eugene Peterson in his magnificent translation THE MESSAGE, says First Peter chapter one:  

"Love one another as if your lives depended on it."

Then in chapter four he translates:

"Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it."

I like his translation.  I think it does.  Do you?  At least the quality of your life and the quality of your relationships do.  

Want to really live? REALLY LOVE

 "The way to really live is to really love."

page 177

THE JESUS LIFE

Stephen W. Smith

How Easy it is to Offended

A quote from Brant Hansen's book, UNOFFENDABLE.

I read this book because I wanted to live unoffended.

Because The Living Bible (TLB) translates I Corinthians 13 verse 5 as

"...[love] is not irritable or touch.  It does not hold grudges and will 

hardly even notice when others do it wrong."

That's how I want to live and love.

Becoming offended is easy, it is natural.

Loving, that is hard. 

That's why I don't need to offended by everything you do,

so I can love you, better.

Reading The Garden

Jon Gordon in his delightful book The Garden, said:

"Love is the most powerful force in the universe.
Love is what connects you and God.
It connects you to each other.
It connects you to yourself."

(page 92)

The trifecta:  God, others, yourself.  The completion of Jesus's greatest commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  And secondly, Love your neighbor as yourself.  [Mark 12:30,31]

We sometimes look past the part where He said love your neighbor as yourself.  Thus, we have to love ourself as foundational.  This sometimes is the hardest part of that directive.