More from Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (pp.135-136):
"The noble love of Jesus impels a man to do great things, and impels him to be always longing for what is more perfect… Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more courageous, nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller nor better in heaven and earth: because love is born of God, and can not rest but in God, above all created things.
He that loveth, flieth, runneth, and rejoiceth; he is free, and can not be restrained. He giveth all for all, and hath all in all; because he resteth in One highest above all things, from whom all that is good flows and proceeds."
I have to say that this is pretty profound, but I think that Kempis may have left out a very important truth about love. Love hurts. Love feels sorrow, jealousy, even anger. What is lovely about any of those? God felt all of these things and poetically scripted these feelings through his prophets to the people of Israel. I am sure He continues to feel these things as people hurt each other or the world which he poured Himself, and thereby Love, into. I am afraid to say that sometimes the most courageous thing, the highest thing and the fullest thing is the thing you least want to do. All the way from dying for a friend, facing death by torture for your beliefs or even standing up for your beliefs in front of your friends down to the most mundane things like getting out of bed all too early and even working every day. I believe that love hurts. Has possibly the greatest power to hurt, more than any other. It does not hurt as much as it annoys when a stranger rags on your weaknesses, but when a friend eggs those things it can end a relationship to avoid that pain. I must say that some of the best things I have accomplished in life have been the very hardest things I have ever had to do, but I did them with a right heart and God worked out the rest.