What is important is how well we love. God will make our _x000D_ love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.
Interpretation
The essence of love lies in its quality, not in its outcome. True love is valuable regardless of the visible results.
Henri Nouwen emphasizes that the true measure of love is not in the tangible results or fruits it produces, but in how deeply and sincerely we love others. He suggests that God's influence will ensure that this love bears fruit, even if we are not able to witness or recognize that fruitfulness in our lives.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a wedding ceremony to emphasize the importance of love in relationships.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
I had traded the fight against love for the fight against loneliness, the fight against life for the fight against death.
The sky dreams of stars, the earth dreams of love.
Therefore the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.
I would not wish any companion in the world but you.
Now, when their glances met, they understood one another. The power that lay within both their souls had met, and, as it were, clasped hands. They accepted one another's sacrifice. Hers, mayhap, was the more complete of the two, because for her his absence would mean weary waiting, the dull heartache so terrible to bear.
My imagination, my ability to understand the way love and people grow over time, how passion can surprise and renew, utterly failed me.
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