Love Like a Rhino

All cowardice comes from not loving, or not loving well, which is the same thing.

                                                - Ernest Hemingway's character in Midnight in Paris

A Rhino can run 30 mph (some up to 45 mph) and can see 30 feet in front of themselves. At 30 mph, they cover half a mile (2640 ft) a minute, 44 feet a second. This is why rhinos are so dangerous when they get spooked. But the deeper statement here is that every stride they take is a step of faith because they can't see what's ahead of them when they're running. The rhino perhaps embodies 2 Cor 5:7 which says "For we live by faith, not by sight," better than any other earthly being. So, I want to encourage you (and myself) to love like a rhino. 1 Cor 13:7 says "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." This is a verse that implies going beyond what you can see. Belief is only necessary when you can't see or it isn't plain for you to see. To love like a rhino is to go for what's 31+ feet ahead without assurance or knowledge of whether you will run into open arms or a wall. Such love is not about the result or the reception on the other side because, after all, love is not self-seeking. It's dangerous; but there are worse dangers. As C.S. Lewis once wrote:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless- it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.... The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.