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We live in a world of limits. We constantly try to push those limits, but there are still limits. Bend something far enough, it breaks. Inflate something big enough, it pops. Limits.

Love seems to be the exception to this. People go further than they imagined possible because of love. It is an ever increasing, ever expanding resource. Kids were what truly helped me to understand this. When my first son was born I felt a love that I'd never imagined. It seemed infinite at the time - like I could never feel more. Then my second son was born. The seemingly infinite expanse of love simply doubled. I'm sure most parents and grandparents understand. Perhaps you love animals enough that you can relate to this concept.

But with this deep love can come deep pain. Henri J. M. Nouwen offers an invitiation based on this in one short chapter of The Inner Voice of Love.

Do not hesitate to love and to love deeply. You might be afraid of the pain that deep love can cause. When those you love deeply reject you, leave you, or die, your heart will be broken. But that should not hold you back from loving deeply. The pain that comes from deep love makes your love ever more fruitful. It is like a plow that breaks the ground to allow the seed to take root and grow into a strong plant. Every time you experience the pain of rejection, absense, or death, you are faced with a choice. You can become bitter and decide not to love again, or you can stand straight in your pain and let the soil on which you stand become richer and more able to give life to new seeds.

The more you have loved and have allowed yourself to suffer because of your love, the more you will be able to let your heart grow wider and deeper. When your love is truly giving and receiving, those whom you love will not leave your heart even when they depart from you. They will become part of your self and thus gradually build a community within you.

Those you have deeply loved become part of you. The longer you live, there will always be more people to be loved by you and to become part of your inner community. The wider your inner community becomes, the more easily you will recognize your own brothers and sisters in the strangers around you. Those who are alive within you will recognize those who are alive around you. The wider the community of your heart, the wider the community around you. Thus the pain of rejection, absence and death can become fruitful. Yes, as you love deeply the ground of your heart will be broken more and more, but you will rejoice in the abundance of the fruit it will bear.

I pray that we will be a community of Jesus followers who continue to love well, and whose pain makes our love even more fruitful. And as we share love, may we discover the ever deepening and overflowing well.