In the wide-open field we call
life—that broad expanse of experience, time and space—there’s a thing so rare;
such a rare thing... as love. In its
most essential context it’s nothing about romance, or partiality, or the will
to do well. All these pale crudely by comparison.
Love is rare as gold and it’s
almost impossible to find in mineable quantities. For, this love we consider is
the moral agency and urgency of the Lord our God. Those who can love, even for
a moment, by their heartfelt sacrifice,
have captured and epitomised an integral part of God’s character, even for that
moment.
And they will know the blessing of
the Lord.
Nurturing This Thing So Rare
If we would be given to the truth,
and for many of us that’s critically important, we must agree with the biblical
Word that paints us, humankind, as an entity that has so much capacity for
love, yet falls in our failure to love so often.
We are sinners. Our sin prevents
us from loving in any sustainable way, mainly for our self-protection. And
still we try. God values our efforts, yet he blesses more, in abundant grace, the sort of weak surrender the world
despises.
But weakness in the world’s eyes
is strength in God’s. He notes the kindness and compassion and patience in our
love and blesses our hearts. When we operate in love, never do we finish in
complaint. Love and pride are incompatible.
The humblest of all people is the
acknowledged sinner—a wonderful paradox puts them closest to God. Then, and
only then, can God’s Spirit work in that sinner’s heart, and then the process
of nurturing begins.
Where Our Focus Is Our Focus Becomes
It’s a self-defeating thing to not
love. When we insist on our own way, on our complaints, one judging people, in
being divisive, and in avoiding the truly good things of life in preference to
the naughty things, we miss love and we miss happiness and peace. Not long
after that our hope begins to sink. Hope must find a home, and when there’s no prepared
place of virtuosity for it to reside, it runs.
But when we focus on love, that
focus becomes our focus. When we go out of our way to understand our hearts,
and why we feel the way we do, challenging ourselves to love, we do eventually
love better—but never perfectly will we love.
If we’re sold to the good things
in life, and can no longer be sold to the worthless things, love has become our
focus, however inconsistent we still may be.
When our focus shifts to love we
care more. Our own agendas scurry to the background. Others’ needs come into
our scope of view. Then, for the first time, we begin to be happy.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
Graphic Credit: Dray-sen.
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