Love or be Loved

To love or to be loved, which gift is more? *
‘Tis better to give, we’re taught, than to receive.
“To be or not to be” we’ve heard before,
the active over passive, we believe.

Our active God does not sit idly by,
He gifts me love, but love needs to be free,
His love I must approve or else deny
by sharing it the way that He loves me.

God gives me my ability to love,
and with it my own liberty to choose,
a Godly power I can’t be careless of,
I use His gift of love for Him or lose.

O Lord, You are Your gift to love so true,
in sharing it, I give it back toYou.

* “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so
much seek . . . to be loved as to love . . .”
-- St. Francis of Assisi Prayer for Peace

-- by Pete Voelz       11/11/12