I Cannot Love

I cannot love you if I love not Him,
I cannot love Him if I love not you.

—Christina Rosetti

Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity (Revell, 2002), p. 70.

This becomes more and more true to me as time goes by. I find that when one relationship is out of sorts, it negatively affects the other, and vice versa. When I have just had an argument with my Beloved, I cannot pray to God. And when I neglect my quiet time with God, I find that desire toward my Beloved wanes as well.

But thankfully the opposite is also true. When all is right between God and me, then my love knows no bounds. And when my relationship with my Beloved is all that it ought to be, then I have peace with God. I cannot love one without loving the other.

℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘ ℘

Elisabeth Elliot’s writing has greatly influenced my life, even as a grown married woman. I truly wish someone had introduced me to her works when I was a teenager, but I am learning that it is never too late to incorporate the principles she teaches: namely, that passion is not sinful and purity is not prudish. Nor are they mutually exclusive. You can have both.