Love Hurts—But It’s Worth It

This season carries a heaviness I can’t ignore. It’s the first Christmas in 18 years in a house where I want my dad to be—yet he isn’t here. Last Christmas, he sat under this same roof, preparing for what life would look like living with us. And my brother, my Christ-filled brother Joe, was here too.

Now both are gone—both home with our Lord and Savior.
And as I sit here writing this, tears in my eyes, I think about every person walking through a similar ache. We’ve all hurt. We’ve all lost. But sometimes, in trying to encourage others, we forget what deep hurt feels like. And we want to offer quick fixes that grief simply doesn’t accept.

Grief has no switch.
No deadline.
No calendar date that makes it “better.”

You don’t move on from grief… you move on with it.
You learn to carry it. You learn to breathe with it. You learn to let the love behind the grief shape you instead of crush you.

And grief isn’t only about death.
Loss comes in many forms—relationships, health, stability, dreams, identity.
Hurt shows up in a hundred different ways.

But here’s the danger:
We can’t sit still in it.
We can’t close our hearts off to love because we’re afraid of being hurt again.
Because when we block our hearts, we don’t just keep pain out—we keep healing out too.

Love hurts. It’s supposed to.
Because real love costs something.

Look at the example the Father set.
He loved us so deeply that He sent His Son—His only Son—to die for us. Imagine that pain. Imagine that ache. That’s how much He loves us.

And Jesus felt the weight of that love too.
He prayed, “My Father, if this cup can pass from me…”—yet still He walked forward.
Why?
Because love is worth the hurt.
Worth the sacrifice.
Worth the risk.

If God Himself embraced a love that hurts, don’t let pain convince you to stop loving.

Love boldly.
Love generously.
Love with open hands and a tender heart.

The only thing more painful than loving is never loving at all.

—Rev Carlos Figueroa
TheFreeBible.Org.