<\/p>\n
\u201cI will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls\u201d (2 Corinthians 12:15).<\/p>\n
THE SATISFYING THING ABOUT LOVE IS NOT THAT WE GET HAPPINESS BUT THAT WE GIVE IT. We may be glad when those we love return our love in ways that make us happy, but that doesn\u2019t always happen. When it doesn\u2019t, we need to remember that real love doesn\u2019t require being returned. When it is unrequited, love may grieve, but it can still survive and even thrive, as it did in the case of Paul. He longed to be loved by his friends in Corinth, but his love didn\u2019t depend on that happiness. He would love them even if it meant giving and giving and giving until there was nothing more to give. \u201cI will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls,\u201d he said, knowing full well that the feeling was not mutual.<\/p>\n
Our modern concept of love is so self-centered that the idea of love without happiness seems ridiculous. Why would a person love anyone or anything if it didn\u2019t bring him happiness? This, for example, is why marriage is such a transitory, vulnerable thing in our culture. Most spouses now live under something like the following threat from their partners: \u201cIf you ever fail to bring me the happiness I think I deserve, then I will be released from any obligation to keep the vows that have guaranteed my love for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
And we don\u2019t do much better when it comes to God, do we? We think of God solely in terms of how much happiness we get in return for loving Him, and if at any time He fails to see the subject of happiness in the same way we do, we feel free to sidestep our commitments to Him. If God ever stands between us and anything we think is necessary for us to be happy, we just go around Him.<\/p>\n
Yet there is a higher path we could follow. It\u2019s an old-fashioned path, admittedly. It\u2019s the way of joy.<\/em> Joy, unlike happiness, does not depend on whether what happens to us is pleasing. It\u2019s not at the mercy of circumstances. Instead, it\u2019s grounded in deep, unchangeable truth. And the love that flows from a joyful commitment to truth will gladly give itself and keep on giving. All it needs is the privilege of singing some part (just any<\/em> part) in the great chorus that glorifies God. All it wants is that Christ \u201cwill be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death\u201d<\/em> (Philippians 1:20).<\/p>\n \u201cWith love one can live even without happiness\u201d (Feodor Dostoevsky).<\/p>\n Gary Henry \u2013 WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com<\/p>\n