Tough Love

"Love, in the true sense, is not always a matter of giving way, being soft, and just acting nice. In that sense, a sugar-coated Jesus or a God who agrees to everything and is never anything but nice and friendly is no more than a caricature of real love. Because God loves us, because he wants us to grow into truth, he must necessarily make demands on us and must also correct us." -- Pope Benedict XVI

You tell 'em, Holy Father. God ain't no wussy-boy.

I love this quote because it challenges those who think of God as The Big Hug From Above, the Immortal Cheerleader who wants us to be happy and fulfilled and self-actualized and to feel good about ourselves all the time, no matter what.

There's no commandment that says, "Thou shalt happily skip along the garden path, in blissful and childlike ignorance of reality and without responsibility or maturity." No, God lays down His expectations. His instruction is to pursue some things, and to avoid some other things, "so that it may go well with you." Which implies, of course, that if you do not...it will NOT go well with you. A loving God gives us choice, but a loving God also gives us responsibility and holds us accountable. As it is with earthly parents, how much more with a Heavenly Father? Would we ever grow into adulthood otherwise?