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Love… A State of Being

As Christians, we often underestimate the importance of “love” in our Christian walk. We focus on faith, on serving others, on being kind to others, on leading lives of integrity, but rarely do we stop to consider the amount of “love” in our lives.

I won’t spend too much time considering why this is the case, but it could be because we’re saturated and overwhelmed with messages about “love” from just about everywhere— regardless of the extent to which they reflect true love.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he replied that it was a commandment about love… to love God, and to love others as yourself (Luke 10:27). When Jesus was telling His disciples to reflect Him, He told them to love one another; people would know that we are His disciples when we love one another (John 13:35)! This gives me the impression that this is such a rare occurrence! When we truly love one another, the world will know what we are His disciples! Doesn’t this infer, that apart from Him, we do not have the capacity for such love?

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“I love you most.”

“I love you most, Rapunzel.” As my family and I watched a beautiful live reenactment of Disney’s Tangled at a local theatre a few days ago, I couldn’t help think about the true meaning of “love.” Is it just a human construct? Beyond the scope of Disney fairytales, is there such a thing as “true love”? With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought it would be a good time to share a few thoughts 🙂

Psychologists and psychiatrists across the ages agree that “love” is a basic human need. Maslow placed “love and belonging” on his famous “hierarchy of needs.” A study done of newborn babies found that babies given all the basic physical nutritional and safety needs, but not given love, eventually died. Love seems to be an intrinsic human need and not just a want.

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Abide in Me!

My kids love strawberries. As I opened a fresh box of strawberries the other day, I found a little strawberry stem, that didn’t quite make it into a strawberry. I had never seen one, and, personally intrigued, thought my kids would be too! So I showed it to my nine-year old daughter, who was so excited, she grabbed it out of my hand and ran to a flower pot we have at our home. “Grace, what are you trying to do?” I asked. “I want to plant it so we can have more strawberries,” she innocently replied. “Oh, but dear, that isn’t possible, because it’s no longer connected to the strawberry tree,” I sorrowfully explained.

It was then that the words, “I am the vine, you are the branches…” began ringing in my ears. I shared Jesus’ poignant teaching on the vine and the branches in John 15 with Grace. It was one of those “teachable moments” for which bedtime just had to wait.

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We Better Watch Out!

Everyone is talking about Christmas. Everyone is “looking for recommendations” for the best Christmas concert and bazaar to attend. Billboards advertising pop artists’ Christmas concerts fill the streets and social media outlets. But are they really celebrating CHRISTmas? What has Christmas become?

“Come on,” you might object, “it’s just fun. After all, ‘tis the spirit of Christmas.” What is “the spirit of Christmas?”

While Christmas and Easter are not mentioned in the Bible as feasts to be celebrated, I’d like to take a quick look at the concept of feasts in the Bible and why God Himself instituted them.

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“Follow Me!”

You cannot read the Gospels and miss Jesus’ repeated phrase, “Follow Me!”

But what does it mean? Can we still follow Him now even though we can’t literally see where He’s going and follow Him like the disciples did?

And if we can’t see Him with our physical eyes, how can we possibly follow Him? Is this some imaginary construct of our minds… just close your eyes and imagine yourself following Jesus? That would be an illusion or delusion as Richard Dawkins would say, but it certainly isn’t!

Most of us have probably played some version of the game “Follow the Leader” or “Simon Says” when we were kids. The game basically begins with a leader whose task is to do certain things (raise his hand, jump, etc.) and the group has to mimic his actions exactly either by seeing him do it or hearing him say it. And according to Wikipedia, “When only one person other than the leader remains, that player becomes the leader.”

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The Most Common Question Asked… Why??

Sometimes things just don’t make sense. Sometimes we don’t understand. Many times we ask God, “Why?” and seem to get no response.

But let me admit that many times when I asked “why?” there was a hidden “I don’t really trust you” message behind it. “God, I’ve asked you to be lord of my life, but are you sure you should have done things this way?” “Why is it taking so long?”

And I find myself offering the omniscient God suggestions! How foolish!

It’s so hard for us to let go. It’s so hard for us to trust, especially when we don’t understand. But does God sometimes ask us to trust even when we don’t understand?

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A life worth living

“Without Christ, just reading the stories shared on social media would make me commit suicide,” shared a friend.

Just reading the stories shared on social media, just hearing of young people die of careless accidents and children die of cancer, just seeing the pain that our loved ones experience, just facing our own struggles and insecurities… if left to our own faculties, we have every right to ask if this life is worth living.

What if we lived in utopia? Where there was no pain, no injustice, no struggle, and ultimately no death. Over history, man has tried to create utopian societies. One such society removed the restrictions of a monogamous marriage and child-rearing to a particular couple, creating a community where there were no clear couples and where all children born were brought up by the community, without a set couple of parents. As you would expect, things didn’t go very well, and this utopian experiment failed, along with many others which preceded and followed.

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The Bigger, the Better, the Best

One would think that after all the Black Friday’s we’ve lived through, people would learn that material things do not satisfy.

But if we ourselves are nothing but matter, live life without purpose, and will one day just cease to exist, then we have nothing to hold on to but matter. For according to this materialistic/naturalistic worldview, there is nothing but matter.

And so we race to the stores, race online, race to find the best deals, race to own the better, the bigger, take it all home, enjoy it for a while and then… Well it all fades away and we go shopping for more!

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The Root of Thankfulness

Thankfulness is about being content. And contentment is about going against the tide of materialism, consumerism, egotism, and many other “isms” of the age!

But if we are just the product of random, purposeless forces and will just cease to exist when we die, then why not be egotistic, consumeristic, and materialistic? Why be content? Why be thankful? Why not just “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die?” (Luke 12:19, 1Cor. 15:32)

Thankfulness is rooted fundamentally in a worldview that does not revolve around oneself. A worldview that does not focus on the temporal but on the eternal. A worldview that teaches giving before receiving. A worldview that teaches serving rather than being served. A worldview that teaches such ironies as loving ones enemies, blessing those who curse us, and praying for those who abuse us. A worldview that seems to go against our egocentric nature.

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What’s on His Mind?

What if God had a social media platform that we can refresh several times a day (I’ll just say several and not a hundred like we do with our social media platforms!) to know “what’s on His mind”?

Wouldn’t that be great?

But let’s think about that for a moment. Why would it be great? Well it’s probably a lot easier than us trying to figure out what’s on His mind.

But what would be the down side of God very clearly revealing Himself via a social media platform? One thing most people around the world agree on is that social media promises more connections, but leads to shallower relationships. Why? Because it’s too easy. All I need to do is refresh my newsfeed with a touch to get instant updates from friends around the world. No effort is needed. Imagine a husband and wife whose relationship is limited to social media interactions. I doubt they’ll stay together for long. Why? Because it’s too easy.

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