Can Love Be...Conditional?

This morning I had a great conversation with a great friend of mine about life and love and relationships and friendships and things of the like. While we were talking about how those kinds of things change more often than we realize, it got me thinking...

Can Love Be Conditional?

Yesterday, I watched Oprah (which may be the first time I've done that in about a year, maybe a year and a half..), but Tyler Perry was the show's guest yesterday. Perry talked about his childhood which had been tampered by several series of abuse. He had experienced 4 bouts of sexual abuse with both men and women, and the main character of this pain of his childhood was his own father. Tyler sat in this chair across from Oprah with tears in his eyes as he talked about the verbal and physical abuse he'd experienced from his father.

And it really broke my heart.
People who have experienced similar things first-hand have a deep empathy for others that go through these experiences.

But something that stuck out to me was at the end of the show, Oprah asked about how his relationship is with his father now, and he proceeded to say that there wasn't really a relationship there. He had yelled and screamed and told his father how he had hurt him, and "let it go...whatever is was that was there."

He said something that was awesome. He said "Anger is ok. Bitterness is not."

(Here's the link if you'd wanna see this clip for yourself:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Tyler-Perry-Talks-About-Forgiveness-Video/topic/oprahshow)

I'm not trying to be the Devil's advocate, and this is in no means my way of trying to encourage hate or defeat or divorce. I think that each person individually has their own opinions and perceptions on all those things. So that's not my intention. Not at all.

But I do believe that there are some relationships, friendships, etc. that are only in our lives for a short period of time. Sometimes those things are ended mutually, sometimes not, but I do believe that those situations are a part of our lives for a purpose. I believe sometimes it's to show us a personal strength that we hadn't tapped into before then. Sometimes, it's to teach us how to be broken and seek others out due to heartbreak or loss. Whatever the case, I think that we all encounter every relationship for a reason and sometimes only for a season in our lives.

Biblically, the book of Ecclesiastes talks about there's "a time to love and a time to hate." I do my best to deter from the latter, but are those moments destined to be a part of our lives? How do we handle finding the balance?

When friendships and relationships go awry, does that mean that the love has ended? Does love end? Does hate end?

If love does end, does that mean that hope ends?