I Still Believe in Love
A man came by the church the other day in a very emotional state. He asked, “What is the point of even trying anymore?” The man had been working with several mentally ill people who had been set adrift by recent cuts to the social safety net.
The man said, “One thing I know for sure is prayer doesn’t work. I don’t even believe in love any more.” Our meeting got cut off at that point, but I was left with this man’s heartfelt question: “How do we go on living meaningfully in these cruel and rudderless times?”
My life teachers have been people who found peace and love even when they were stuck in terrible storms not of their own making. My life teachers have been people with an inner light so powerful and so beautiful they illumined their world whether it was happy and loving, or cruel and cold.
I still believe in love because of people like Ann Frank and Viktor Frankl who refused to let the midnight of German fascism extinguish their brilliant lights. I still believe in love because I have known cancer patients, human rights workers and oppressed people who refused to be dehumanized by the injustices around them.
In cruel times, love is more important than ever, but we must know that love is not sent fully formed from heaven above. Love is born into this world through courageous hearts. Love comes into our world like the light of fireflies- from the inside out.
If you have been asking “what’s the point of going on,” perhaps it will be helpful to consider YOUR life teachers and the people who taught you what it means to be fully human. You may not be able to change how you feel today, but consider your grief a starting place for manifesting your inner light instead of as a dungeon you will have to endure for the rest of your life.
We can face these times if we but remember one thing: the “purpose” of our life is not to win at life as if it were some parlor game. We all die and life is often cruel and unfair. If we have a purpose it is to manifest the phoenix of human nobility within us, and that can only happen when we enter bravely and fully into the fire which consumes us all. Victor Frankl planted this seed in countless hearts when he said, “What is to give light must endure burning”
The faith that “saves” us is trusting that the light is worth the pain.