love

In my Chinese literature class today, we read an interview of Eileen Chang, a well-known Chinese author during the Cultural Revolution, and one quote really stood out for me... in fact, I've been thinking about it ALL day. It's one of those quotes.

"If it's love, you don't ask if it's worth it or not."

How cool?! So simple, but so true... on so many levels. Here are my thoughts. First, after hearing this quote, I thought about the friendships and relationships in my life. And that idea makes a lot of sense. I would do anything for my good friends and family. There are no justifications or reasons necessary... it's just love, pure and simple.

Later, I got to thinking about this quote in terms of my relationship with God. This is the perfect statement of faith. First of all, loving God. If it is truly perfect love - a truly dedicated relationship with God, you don't ask if it's worth it or not. Lately, I've been having a rough time waking up on Sunday mornings to make it to mass... I don't really enjoy the masses in town, and so I find myself thinking a lot, 'is it worth it?' And so this quote is kinda perfect.

Also, as I'm writing this, I just realized that this quote also perfectly describes God's love for us. As part of the Lenten reflection sort of mood I'm supposed to be in, this totally works. God loves us so much that he gave his son to die for us - and never once asked if it was worth it. He knew it was. It was worth the life of his only son to save a bunch of people he never met... who mess up all the time, and continually make the same dumb mistakes, and turn away from his love... but he loves us SO much that it was worth it anyway. In fact, the thought of us being 'worthy' never even crossed his mind. We are that loved.