Unconditional Conditional Love

    Well everyone, this post is about my great theological secret that I think could benefit many people. I have already written one blog post about it before. The idea is based on an adaptation of the kind of love I learned about at church a long time ago.  Sometimes people talk about “unconditional love,” which supposedly is love that continues even when people are not in a condition that seems as lovable as usual, or as lovable as possible.  It seems so nice, except for the fact that a lot of times, it becomes more of some kind of “unconditional condescension” instead, because in your heart, you think the person is not actually lovable.  People think that they are just flinging their amazing and priceless love into a void as some heroic act, when really, for them to take that view means they have to ignore great worth that God himself has created.  I became unsatisfied with that hypocrisy early in my life, and have tried a different way of relating to people, which might seem contradictory or even redundant. But I think that really, it is closer to what unconditional love was supposed to be. I think it would be best described as “unconditional conditional love.”  The idea of it is that your choice to extend goodwill and appreciation to people is unconditional, but the love itself is based on actual lovable factors about people that you deliberately search for and easily find if you are a good person yourself.

    People might interrupt here and excitedly say, “oh, like “tough love” where you get to confront people about their faults.”  No, I still mean a kind positive caring effort in thought and feeling and deed, that gives people the benefit of the doubt even if that doubt is reminiscent of total depravity.

    There are all kinds of things to love and even admire about almost anyone. The intellectual effort of it can kind of turn you into a robot if not enough nice people love you back, but I think in the end, it is much more effective and true than insulting people with a love so fake that you have to remind everyone that it is not based on anything whatsoever except for your own decision to ignore Jesus’s command not to throw your pearls to pigs.

   It starts with looking around and questioning church doctrine, and secretly whispering to yourself and to God, “What if these people actually are lovable?” and “What if really I’m not in a zombie movie like the people who disapprove of zombie movies tried to tell me?”

    I myself do not like zombie movies, so that is not exactly my point. My point is that if you think being friends with someone is such a miracle that brought life out of an abyss of pure evil, then you should also be doing other miracles that are more obvious, like making trees walk. And if you’re not, then maybe the miracle is that people would be friends with you.