Humans by nature are explorers. We have barely explored our oceans yet we are designing programs to reach Mars. In my opinion, what we have explored even less than the oceans is our own capacity to love.

The model of love that Jesus Christ left us can often feel unattainable and beyond our reach. That makes His greatest commandment, to “Love one another, as I have loved you,” more of an ideal than a goal. If it were a goal, people would be promoting it, marketing it, practicing it. Part of the problem is that it also requires that we love ourselves, a daunting task for many.

We romanticize love as a way to keep it at a distance, separate and distinct from ourselves and everyday living. We associate it with flowers and not with power.

I think this is the territory most in need of exploration today. I shudder to think how many spaceships will be needed if we fail to do so.