YOUR TRUE SELF TO ANOTHER

The famous author, C. S. Lewis, puts it best, “To love at all is to be

vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly
broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give
it to no one.” Lewis is right. What makes love so hard, and
sometimes painful, is the vulnerability that always seems to
accompany it.

“True love goes beyond the passion of

romance and even finding a partner
for the sake of being married.”
We use the word love to describe a lot of things. We love food. We
love music. We love a good joke and we love having a good time.
Using love to describe such simple things makes the word seem a
little safer. It is safe because we are not exposed. A great cup of
coffee cannot reject us. A song from our favorite band does not
leave us feeling useless. But when we choose to share our life with
another person, we inevitably make a choice to become vulnerable.
Unfortunately, vulnerability leaves our defenses down and often we
get hurt.

We all know the feeling: rejection, humiliation, desperation. Opening

our heart to another person, only to be rejected, is one of the most
painful experiences in life. It hurts the most because in love we are
most vulnerable. It’s worse than physical pain because it shakes us
at the core of our identity, our hopes, and our dreams. Love rushes
us to the mountain-top, and when lost, sends us careening back to
the valley below. We cannot help but feel empty. We cannot help
but feel worthless. We cannot help but feel hopeless.

2. FINDING TRUE LOVE CAN BE

DIFFICULT
The Bible has a remarkable story about a woman named Leah who
discovered that finding true love was difficult. Leah was the
daughter of a wealthy and manipulative man named Laban. Leah
also had a sister named Rachel, one of the most beautiful women in
the whole region. Leah, was described as, “weak in the eyes.” We
do not know exactly what that phrase means, but it is not hard to
guess. Even without the side-by-side comparison to her beautiful
sister, Leah was not drawing much attention.

One day, Rachel was herding the sheep when a young man named
Jacob came to the well. His journey’s purpose was to find a wife, so
it did not take him long to notice beautiful Rachel approaching. He
rolled away the stone over the well, and watered the sheep for her.
Learning he was her father’s nephew, she ran home to tell Laban
the news.