6/52 it's not love any other way

I spent a significant amount of my childhood behind a locked door-- until it wouldn't lock anymore. I must have really pissed off my parents one day before running into my room and slamming the door shut, because this time they came after me. After trying in vain to get me to voluntarily open up, they eventually forced the door open. In retrospect I realize it wasn't only in anger that they broke that lock. It was also out of love. They cared too much to let me just self-destruct.

Looking back on it now, I think in their imperfect way my parents were giving me a foretaste of God's perfect love. It's easy to love someone on their good days. It's easy to love someone when they love you back. But the truest, most profound love persists when neither of those circumstances apply.

True love reaches beyond the barriers we erect and aims to touch us in all our brokenness. The "love" we see and experience so often these days is cheap. It doesn't want to deal with all our flaws and shortcomings. It needs to be reciprocated. It's ultimately self-centered. But true love does not demand reciprocation, though it certainly hopes for it. It endures even when we are at our worst. But in order for it to have an effect, we have to allow ourselves to be vulnerable. We have to open the door to let love in and see us as we really are.

"I wanna know who you are, even if you're falling apart
reach in and touch your scars, and all the shame you've kept in your heart
'Cause it's not enough, it's not enough just to say that you're okay
I need your hurt, I need your pain
It's not love any other way"-Tenth Avenue North