I had a conversation recently with a good friend about learning to love others when the love is not reciprocated.  It reminded me of this poem.  I wrote it in June of 2008, if I remember correctly.  Its message is simple.  Love wins in the end.  Sometimes life deals us with difficult and seemingly hopeless circumstances.  These are usually the times we also struggle the most with things like loneliness, anger and bitterness (or whatever else we humans struggle with).  It is during these times that our love for God and for others is given its greatest testing.  These are the real moments in life when we learn to love.  Only by His grace and through an eternal perspective can we truly learn to love.  A heart response of love is true victory in any circumstance.  If we choose to love, no earthly defeat can steal our eternal inheritance.

A Poem to a Lonely Bride

I wish I could tell you these wonders work well,

but often they fail by our words and our actions.

To do what is right is always right to do,

to love, to love, to love when love is not received,

this, dear one, is the love that is required.

Do you feel like everything is failing, falling, crashing,

as though these fleeting pains will never leave your heart?

Is this not the cost of pearls?

Tell me ‘what is the fruit of our desires?’

even purity can slay us sometimes.

But never, ever count it as loss,

if it takes you to the throne of your Savior…

where each request is lovingly weighed,

by the eyes that see the end of the day.

No matter what time or chance you are dealt,

no matter the pain or sorrow that’s felt…

The Father’s hand is always at hand,

for those who are willing to be lifted up.

Jesus will never stop praying for you.

The Savior’s cries,

they fill all of heaven.

It doesn’t matter if you’re swift or you’re wise,

because you know Jesus and the life that’s inside.

Now tarry, tarry-

No matter the cost,

because happy endings are your portion.

We win in the end.