Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Sacrificial love

Yesterday, I sat across from a woman whose heart is very dear to me and we shared a conversation over breakfast.  

I watched tears fill her eyes as she admitted that the people around her are robbing her of her joy, of the very essence of her being.  

It all began because she loved, genuinely.  She poured out her heart - and therefore her time, energy, and resources - to show love to the people around her.  
It ends with her inability to give because they've taken so much.  She's no longer giving, they're only taking. 
This strong, independent, and wise woman that I know sat in front of me, aching and torn for having been taken advantage of.

How much can you give of yourself to love sacrificially?  
Once I told someone, "I love you, just how you are... But I love you enough to not let you stay that way." 
What if the sacrifice is their friendship?
What if, in being honest about their taking advantage of you, you lose them altogether? 
Is that a sacrifice you're willing to make?  Do you love that much?  
It doesn't feel like love.  It hurts like hell.  It doesn't look like love when you part ways.  
It is love.  
It's sacrificial love... love that says I will challenge you, and keep your best interest at heart, always, no matter the cost.  

Rather than this option, though, she chooses to run in search of new people, people who might give to her, and not require that she always give.  
It ends the same way.  There must be balance, and a realization that the only solution is honest conversation.  Make new friends, and pursue balance and truth together, but not at the cost of the other friends... Let that loss only come as a result of inability to accept truth.  

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