The Hard Work of Love — Patrick Riley

There’s this electronic sign that belongs to the church on 18th and Colorado here in Denver. I look at it every day because I drive right by it to get into my neighborhood. While some churches are known for the cheesy puns on their signs, this one features some pretty incredible sayings. There’s one in particular that shows up every so often that has resonated with me over the last few months. It says, “May we do the hard work of love.”

May we do the hard work of love.

The phrases “we should love one another” or “love cures all” or a thousand other love phrases are thrown around all the time. It seems like there is this feeling that if we “love,” everything will be okay.

But as we enter 2022, I think we can all agree that simply saying “we should love one another” isn’t going to solve the myriad issues and collective anger we’re facing.

People are mad these days. Their fuses are very short, and incivility-even violent incivility in some cases-is high. As reported by the New York Times in their recent article “A Nation on Hold Wants to Speak With a Manager,” people are having temper tantrums because stores don’t have the expensive imported cheese they want. People feel “nearly homicidal rage at the credit card company representative who has just informed you that, having failed to correctly answer the…