The Healing Journey

May 14, 2025

In the 1950s, there was a popular song titled “Love Is Strange” by the duo Mickey & Sylvia — known as “The Mother of Hip Hop.”

“Love is strange,” she sang. “Lotta people take it for a game…Once you get it, you never wanna quit. After you’ve had it, you’re in an awful fix.”

Of course, only our imperfect human love is strange. God’s love is constant and unconditional. So many people spend their lives looking for love in all the wrong places, and when they think they’ve found it, they discover something’s not right. Because human love is imperfect and usually conditional.

But an appreciation of God’s love is necessary for healing, any kind of spiritual or emotional healing, not just grief. This is why even those of us who were raised to believe God’s primary pastime is punishment have to work and pray hard to find a new understanding. To find the truth. Otherwise, our lives will inevitably be fearful and even worse, bitter. We were made to be creatures of love, but we can never love as we’re intended to in this life if we don’t start with the love of God for us. We’ve been told so many times that God loves us that the words can lose their impact. He loves us perfectly and unconditionally, and he loves us so much that it would emotionally short-circuit us if we experienced it fully in this life.

Our lives will be plagued with disappointment and hurt if we don’t have a true appreciation of God’s love for us… especially when we face tragedy and suffering. Without the truth of his unconditional love, we’ll think we’re being punished or that this life is an empty, cold and bitter experience. Worst of all, we will become non-believers.

It’s also important to remember that God loves us all, the good ones, the bad ones, the beautiful ones and the ugly ones … because none of us are ugly to God.

If you doubt God’s perfect love for you — and even if you believe it — say this prayer every day and look for results: Dear God, may I recognize your love for me today in my life.
©J Pisani

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