Love like you can't be hurt!

 

Beloved, if God so loved us,

we also must love one another.

No one has ever seen God.

Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,

and his love is brought to perfection in us.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,

that he has given us of his Spirit.

Moreover, we have seen and testify

that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world.

Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,

God remains in him and he in God.

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.

God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

In this is love brought to perfection among us,

that we have confidence on the day of judgment

because as he is, so are we in this world.

There is no fear in love,

but perfect love drives out fear

because fear has to do with punishment,

and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.

~1 John 4:11-18

Love like you can't be hurt! I saw this on a pillow today at a thrift store, I had never seen that concept before, but it resonated with me. This is what is happening with me. I love so much! I love others, show love, do love, am love, but so many cancel me and turn off to my love. They cannot be bothered. Especially the ones who want me to join their hate clubs, but I won't hate or join their clubs. They can hate, be negative, and live in misery, but I won't be part of that. I just pray for them. I love what John says again today about love. All week in mass the readings from him, he has been talking about the love of God, the love of His son, dying for our sins, because of our sins. We are called to love all people, all! I just cannot understand all the hate today, all the TDS, all the negativity, even leading to violence. How sad! Today we saw some deranged hater try to run over an ICE agent and she got shot, she let her hate blind her so much, it caused her to lose her life, being so reckless, so full of hate. She needs some Jesus. She could benefit from these readings from John, and the love Jesus advocates for us for all. People need to be careful not to let their hate blind them. It is all about love! Going back to the pillow love phrase, it is so true. I allow myself to be out there, I just love all, I never knew hate growing up, my parents never hated, we went to church, they taught me about Jesus, and we only knew love in our house. So I just do not understand any hate at all. But that being said, it is so true, when you let yourself go and just love it while it seems like it can hurt when you are rejected or persecuted, we just need to keep loving anyway, like Saint Mother Teresa talks about. We need to not let our love and reaching out and it be rejected to let it hurt us, we tried, we loved, some will not reciprocate nor appreciate your love and acts of love. I know I sent some Christmas cards and emails to some out of love, but they never responded back, sent me a card, nor reached out through email. I text a family member for Thanksgiving wishing well and love, they never responded.  I wrote to an old colleague to say hello and happy new year recently, they never bothered to write back. I show so much love, but sometimes it is not appreciated, sometimes I am hated, persecuted, ignored, and cancelled for my love, but this pillow quote today told me something very important, just keep loving anyway, love like you can't be hurt! God wants us to keep on loving!