Ah, the magic word. It means so many things
to so many people. Let's start with Paul's
Rhapsody of love (1st Corinthians 13).
Is love a feeling? not really! Is it an
activity? yes! It's doing an unpleasant job
for someone else. It's taking pains. It's
getting up in the middle of the night for
someone who needs you. It's falling on a
grenade to protect your buddies. It's all of
these things, and much more.
It's remembering the Old Rugged Cross. The
story is told of a black convert in darkest
Africa. When told the story of the cross, he
said "Jesus, get down! That's my place!"
That's love.
Can I love like that? I doubt it, but I'd
like to be able to.
3 comments:
I'm wondering if the feeling of love is a lesser love, because its an easier love. Its so easy to allow yourself to be swept away by emotions (it is for me). I've been thinking a lot about this recently -- it seems to me that I would be more loving towards my children if instead of running away with my frustration and anger and yelling at them, I thought instead how being yelled at would make them feel when they are really only following childish impulses.
Do I love my children enough to sublimate my initial emotional responses? I do, but I'm lazy and self-centered. Do I love God enough to let go of everything, even those aspects of my personality that I really like, so that he can make me perfect? Not yet, but I know I need to.
The struggle with self-will is a life long battle. It would be nice to know I will reach the point where it isn't. The early Quakers taught that it was possible to reach the point where we were so in tune with God's will for us tahts in became impossible.
That seems a VERY long ways away. And I'd be terrified that I thought I had arrived before I got there. And so rested from my journey.
How come love is something that Christians struggle with more than anyone? Is it cos we're meant to love everyone? Not with 'helpless lovey-dovey feelings' that we can convince ourselves we feel for anyone, but with that self-sacrificing love that's so hard to feel.
If you've seen my blog, you'll see it's a topic I'm really struggling with at the minute, I think what we just gotta keep in mind is that 'God is Love'.
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