I do not even know where to begin.
That kind of an opener makes it sound like something happened. Looking back on the past couple days, though, I am hard pressed to come up with anything worth the exhaustion I feel. Mostly, I have been frantically running thither and thither, whilst consuming caffeine, in the hope of having something to show for all my labors at the end of the day.
I'll tell you where I began to go wrong: It was in the determination to get the Master Bathroom painted this week. I'm currently down two gallons of paint, and yet the end is not in sight.
It was a worthy goal. In fact, it was quite reasonably attainable as I surveyed the plans for the week.
However...
My past couple of days are a long and dreary story, for which I am lacking inspiration to adequately tell. Suffice it to say that it was a long week with unexpected trajectories sprinkled liberally throughout my days. It was laborious in the extreme, and represents perfectly the primary reason that God knew we'd need a weekend to look forward to. Here I sit, finally, with a fixed determination upon my keyboard and a glass of White. Do join me, won't you?
Despite my desire to be painting, and the random trail of unexpected inconveniences which prevented me, I have found myself with quite a bit of time to think. Thinking is vastly underrated, if you ask me. Why do people avoid it so? My Mother always told me that a good barometer for evaluating one's self is to be alone with one's thoughts. If you are comfortable with your own thoughts, you are likely doing alright. While this may or may not be the case, I do find that the content of my head is entertaining. I'm not sure you'd enjoy it nearly as much as I do, but I share what tidbits I can.
So
You know how I have been thinking about Love? (I told you my original musings a couple of days ago. If you don't remember, then click here)
"Love" is a grossly overused word in our language. Personally, I think that we need to come up with different words which more specifically represent the various types of Love that we mean. Until we do, though, we'll have to stumble through.
As we consider the way that God loves us...or how we are to love Him...or how we are to love one another...I think we must give some careful consideration to what you and I think of as "Love."
I have been thinking about Romantic love because of the a rash of Proposals among my friends. It's lovely to be twitterpated. (That's a word from the movie Bambie. Remember it? It means something like "to have a crush.") This is the sort of thing we mean when we talk about "falling in love." It's a giddy acceptance, with fluttering emotion. It's distracting and happy. I was wondering today if some who see God as loving are thinking of this sort of thing. These are the folks who have no fear of God, and they expect Him to accept their sins and foibles as endearing. They enjoy a picture of God as an indulgent, enraptured lover, who blithely accepts whatever trinkets of affection they might offer.
Do you suppose this is an anemic definition of love?
In contrast, I was thinking of the difficulty of loving a child through horrific addiction. What if God's love is more like that? It's a bone deep knowledge of the value within the person loved, an unwillingness to abide with tawdry excuses of poor behavior. It's the tough-love insistence that will not turn away when discipline is called for, and will not be cowed when hard decisions double one over in grief. This, I think, might more accurately picture how we are loved by the God of Creation. What if I am to love you in this way, too?
What if Christians really loved each other like this?
How offensive this love would be!
How intrusive!
How powerful.....
I've much to learn on this topic. "Miles to go before I sleep..."
I am afraid of the action required by such contemplation.
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