If I lower my expectations, I won't so easily be let down. The lower my expectations, and the less likely I am to be let down, the more opportunity I have to be surprised. The less I expect from people, the more I get to love people. When I try to have faith in people, it is made harder for me to love people. When I approach society, culture, and these circles of friends without faith, when I assume them to be of no integrity or credibility, only then am I able to witness faithfulness, integrity or credibility. Only when I allow myself to unconditionally love--no strings, no expectations, no conditions--only then have I been able to experience this joy which comes from feeling love.
With these lowered expectations, fewer disappointments, this absence of faith, and the moments of surprise has come a greater capacity for love. And as my understanding developed into a fluency in feeling love for others, I began to know what it was to feel loved as well. Not that distorted sense of love. |
