Love That Conquers

Mother Teresa once said, "There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love." It is sad that in our society where we have more of everything materially, compared with most in the world, we also see more alienation among neighbors and families. It is ironic because we could live without most of the little extras without suffering any loss of well-being and yet it is the loneliness and absence of satisfying relationships that is causing our hearts the most suffering.

It would appear that with all that we have accomplished we could conquer the loneliness and lack of love that many feel in their hearts today. Of course, we have been given the solution to the problem if we would listen and take it to heart. The solution is to allow God's love to be perfected in our words, thoughts and behavior. John offered these profound truths about the nature of knowing God and His love.

He writes, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not have love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 1 John 4:7-12 NIV

At least one of the obvious truths is that God has done so much to make true love in our hearts a reality that we have no real excuse for love being absent from our hearts - unless we have simply rejected love - the saddest of all predicaments. Yet, for those who seek love and for those who still believe in its power, there is hope.

Frederick Buechner in his book: The Magnificent Defeat wrote, "The love for equals is a human thing - of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing - the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world.

The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing - to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints.

And then there is the love for the enemy - love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world."

Real love seeks to express itself in so many different forms that we are continually reminded of its power and its constant presence in the world. However, the only real hope of humanity for love to conquer the emptiness in this world is for us to place our hope in the One with whom real love originates and choose to live out His love in our daily lives. His love will conquer all and satisfy the need of the human heart.