Love's Opposite...

I made a fire on the deck tonight. As it burned I couldn't help but notice how all-consuming fire is. I also noticed the it burned differently, depending on the wood. I had a couple of pieces of oak, solid, heavy wood that was still burning when I came in at midnight. Several pieces of Aspen burned quick and bright, but didn't last long at all. I had some pine that flared up nice, but also burned quickly...

I got to thinking that fire is alot like some of our emotions. Those emotions that are powerful, strong, are like fire. Love is fire. It can start out slow, small, and not real hot, but in time it grows, in size, in heat, in intensity. Like different kinds of wood we can also experience love differently, from a stable long-burning emotion, to the white-hot flare up that recedes and leaves us sometimes confused and spent...

But love is not alone in being an intense emotion. Hate is also a fire. Often hate is thought to be the opposite of love, but it is not. It is perhaps better described as love's cousin, for it is very similar to love in it's characteristics. It can start slow, and build. It can become intense and all-consuming... Relationally, becuase they are so similar in their intensity, people often fluctuate between these powerful emotions within the relationship. Factor in the powerful emotion of anger as the catalyst between the two and it's easy to understand the concept of a love-hate relationship.

So what is the opposite of love? The opposite of love is indifference.Like a fire, love needs to be fed, to be fueled if it is going to grow, in heat and intensity. Failure to feed the fire allows the fire to die, and the fault is ours, for like fire, it needs our attention to survive and to grow. Indifference is like wet wood- there's no way fire will ever be able to consume it, for it is incapable of allowing even the smallest spark to take hold. Indifference is the antithesis of love; it is the killer of love. Food for thought...