Further to AJ’s comment and my reply I came across this from Herni Nouwen society which kind of sums up what I meant
The Source of All Love
Without the love of our parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers, and friends, we cannot live. Without love we die. Still, for many people this love comes in a very broken and limited way. It can be tainted by power plays, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, and even abuse. No human love is the perfect love our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognise it as love.
In order not to be destroyed by the wounds inflicted by that imperfect human love, we must trust that the source of all love is God’s unlimited, unconditional, perfect love, and that this love is not far away from us but is the gift of God’s Spirit dwelling within us.
Ooooh, good stuff.
You’re right, (and the article is right) love is rarely perfect. I think a lot of damage is done in christian ministry circles by telling people who are hurting that all they need to do is find the perfect love of God. As this love is not reflected by people anywhere in their lives they decide it doesn’t exist and become jaded and fed up and totally shut off their need for authentic humanity and spiritual connection. Maybe this is what contributes to our consumeristic don’t give a sh*t society- becuase we’ve set the bar to high for experiencing perfect love it just dissillusions everyone who doesn’t find it?
loving it, if only we had more Christian writers with Nouwen’s mix of honesty, humility and the gift of getting to the heart of our problems – what would have been his reflections on the tension and strife currently besetting the CofE, and is the Church trying to resolve conflict be trusting in our opinion and negotiating skills . . . or the “source of all love?