(The following reflection is from a journal entry that I wrote while on a 30-day silent retreat in July, 2020. )

I’ve been listening to Italian music lately because I’ve been trying to learn the language. One song really gripped me, even before I understood the words. The title is “È Più Forte L'amore,” which means “Love is Stronger.” Much is lost in translation, but the lyrics seem to tell of the opposing forces of good and evil, and in the end love wins because love is stronger:

Between peace and terror . . . Between anger and astonishment . . . Between courage and fear . . .

Love is Stronger.

At this point in time, I look back over my life, including all those things I do in God’s name, and I hear God calling back — just love Nina. Love me and love others. Honestly, that’s it! But that’s the harder thing for we humans, isn’t it? We need to draw very near to God to tap into this love. It resides within us, but it’s all too easy for it to become buried deep inside. It feels safe there at first, but in time we realize that it’s imprisoned. It gnaws at us from deep within. It wants to be set free to love.

At the end of the day, it’s only about love. How much love do I pour into my relationship with God, others, myself, my community, my ministries? That’s all God wants to know.

Love is persistent, resilient, playful, and joyful. It seeks to love and be loved. Most of all, I think, it just gives so utterly and completely, and yet it never reaches a bottom. There is no bottom for true love. The more it gives, the more it fills with love — so thrilled it is to give!

What does it give? Not the way we might think of giving. It gives of its very being, all that it is and all that is has. It can’t be hurt. It can’t be killed. The more you try, the more it will shine its bright light of love on you because it seeks only to love. And how do I acknowledge this love? What is it that I think I am doing to please love? It wants only my love.