I was sitting in a university classroom with some other students many years ago, listening as they shared tidbits about their lives. A woman told us about how she and her husband were divorced, and how it was proof that love does not conquer all. I don’t remember any other specific details of that conversation, but the memory has stuck with me all this time.
It’s a difficult question for any one person to answer since our responses are sure to be relative to our individual experiences. One person’s testimony would offer a sharp juxtaposition to another’s disaster. Even I have seen both ends of that spectrum: I’ve witnessed the redeeming platform that love can work into a struggling relationship, and I’ve seen it fall short of just enough to get people through.
I have certainly walked away from people I loved, knowing my love was not enough to make that relationship work. Wouldn’t that mean love was not enough? But then again, some might not consider that a failure. Sometimes love means taking the hard and painful route. But it still begs the question: was love not enough to conquer that hurdle?
I think, after putting quite a few years between me and that conversation, filled with more love and more heartbreak than I ever expected to experience, I would agree. On a micro level, love does not necessarily conquer all. My love cannot conquer someone else’s inability to love me for who I am. It cannot clean up toxic behavior; I don’t think it can even reconcile differences between two people – differences that may be big enough to fracture their relationship.
However, love can conquer sin. Isn’t it love that compels us to offer forgiveness? Isn’t it love that keeps us working, seemingly far beyond our natural ability, to reach a mutual understanding with someone else? And in all that, even if it doesn’t conquer all things, it bears all things. (1 Corinthians 13:7) Because love is a force not only beyond our comprehension, but beyond our natural capacity as human beings; love is God-given. And if His love conquered death, then I would say at least love did this: it conquered the darkest, most sinister force known to man and ushered in a brilliant new way for us to conquer those things that once held us captive. No matter what we’re dealing with, love will show us the way forward.
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