Quote of the Week On Love

Although I am in Pittsburgh doing a TV interview in a couple hours, I wanted to put up a quote of the week. This one comes from my book on the Chapter on Love:

“Learning about love has been an ongoing process, something I’ve had to suffer through many times. Sure, there’s great irony in having a chapter here on hating love. It’s not that I hate love in and of itself. Who in his right mind would? I love being loved, as we all do. That’s not the issue.
    More accurately, it’s loving I hate. I hate having to always be loving. I hate having to be loving toward people I’d much rather ignore. I hate to love like Jesus taught, modeled, and prayed that we would all imitate. To truly love, I always have to be “on.” I hate having to work at loving. I hate the process and practice of what Jesus laid out. I’d much rather love who I want, when I want.
    I’d much rather go with the feeling called love. If I feel it, I’ll do it. If I don’t, I won’t. That’s easier. But that’s emotion, not love.
If there’s one thing the life of Jesus taught us, it’s that love is a choice. It seems like it shouldn’t be so much work, but it is. A lot of the time, we just have to muscle through it.
    Love is unnatural that way.”