1 John 2:15-17
Sheldon and Jean discovered true, deep love. They didn’t just dream about it. They lived it. They got married, crossed oceans and together began a search for the Christian faith. At Oxford, they met C.S. Lewis and through his influence became believers. But then Jean fell prey to a mysterious illness. Soon, much sooner than they both anticipated, she was gone. Sheldon was left behind to pick up the pieces. He began to travel that road of life apart from the one he deeply loved.
He turned to his friend C.S. Lewis. They began to correspond with letters. Through these Sheldon expressed some of the love that he and Jean discovered and experienced. In one letter, the killer of love and how to fight it, he talks about what kills love.
The killer of love is creeping separateness. Inloveness is a gift, but then it is up to the lovers to cherish or to ruin. Taking love for granted, especially after marriage. Ceasing to do things together. Finding separate interests. ‘We’ turning into ‘I’. Self. Self-regard: what I want to do. Actual selfishness only a hop away. This was the way of creeping separateness. And in the modern world, especially in the cities, everything favoured it. The man going off to his office; the woman staying home with the children – her children – or perhaps having a different job. The failure of love might seem to be caused by hate or boredom or unfaithfulness with a lover; but those were results. First came creeping separateness: the failure behind the failure.
