Several months ago Paul and I were having a really rough time. In the midst of it all I remembered the lyrics of a 90's song. "Sometimes love just ain't enough." I guess I remembered them because I knew how that felt. Sometimes you know you love each other but things get so painful it doesn't seem like that's enough to get you through.

"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

When you meet someone and fall in love it seems to me that that's a foundation that doesn't change, even over years. It gets built on. It gets added to, but what brought you together is still the same, and it's good. But stuff gets in the way.

Add marriage, in-laws, and two full time jobs. Add a mortgage. Take away one of the full time jobs. Increase the mortgage. Add kids. Add a ministry calling. Go back to full time work. Sound familiar? Sometimes love gets spread pretty thin, and that's just on the basics...

But whose love are we talking about? Human love is fragile, and it's incomplete. That's why the healthiest people have support networks, circles of love, because we need more than one person to give us a complete picture of love.

Imagine if all the love you experienced was the 1 Corinthians picture of love? Imagine if that was the love you always gave? It seems to me that that kind of love would be enough for anything.

But you're never going to find it on earth. We are made in God's image, but we fell, so we are broken. No human being will ever love you the way they should. I would say that in all my relationships love holds us together, not our love but God's. God teaches us how to love each other and He loves us so that we are filled up, even when the support network breaks down.

God asks us to love, so we all have that responsibility but we can't do it without God. We can do a bit on our own, depending on who has already taught us about love. But we'll never grow or strengthen in love without God.

I am so grateful Lord for your love that has always been enough for us, through everything.