For some time I have not thought much about God's love apart from human interactions. I don't that it is possibly for a spiritual entity to love apart from a physical manifestation through a human medium.
I have seemed to settle in on this idea that love is only great when it involves some sort of sacrifice. All other 'love' seems powerless. No other kind has the power to transform. I think that people want this kind of love. Yet it is a tad rare because of the cost of the sacrifice.
Thinking about marriage and divorce, there doesn't seem to be any logic or formulas - no rhyme or reason. Crap happens. Dreams die. Life gets hard. There is collateral damage. Yet sometimes, both (it has to be both) find a way to continue the journey of live together.
I'll tell you, Bob. Your comment heartens me. I've been working toward the ground you stake out here. It's so hard for me to unlink from my Fundamentalism, because it's not a decision at all. It's a whole-person wiring. My brain simply is a believer in God's love and overwhelming involvement in my daily life. After 50 years, my brain makes core decisions as if God were exactly what I was taught God is. That decision-making has netted me some good success, and I could always blame my failures on things outside of faulty reasoning about God. Looking back, I see your analysis of God's connection to people explains my life better than my old one. Thank you.
And I agree, it's all about loving the people in front of us. Now, I just need to figure out the real way to do that. I was given this death-centric narrative of love, and that has not helped me. Dying-to-self to love others is not a thing. You talk about sacrifice, but I think we need to ask ourselves what sacrifice really is. I was taught it's only valuable if I'm dying to self in some way, but I think it's a pertinent sacrifice to let another person's pain trump our own.
I think, maybe, it's more a matter of stopping and seeing other people, being curious about them. I'm thinking love might be refusing to assume we know people because we can call out some trait about them, not filing them away in our minds as heroes, villains, or NPCs. It might be looking hard enough to find in everyone the same complexity we always feel inside ourselves, and letting their complexity displace our quick fixes. It might actually be realizing there's no sacrifice we can make that will erase their pain, and standing with them anyway.
I think that love has to be more than warm feelings. More than sex. More than companionship. Seems like it has to be at least a bit sacrificial. It has to be something substantial. Perhaps it is a mix of many things?
This verse from Acts speaks to me about what love looked like in the life of the early church. "Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need."
Sacrifice is found with love. I agree. I'm trying to dig a little deeper, though. Sacrifice is also found in narcissism and infatuation and in manipulation. I've known people very well, from long hours with him in a mirror, who have sacrificed on earth for someone whose pain I did not really see. I believe when we truly see the pain and complexity of someone's experience our sacrifice springs from a truer place within us.
Those Christians in Acts could have been sharing all things in common because they were looking for a reward from God. Ananias was sacrificing some portion of his wealth in search of admiration from people. I've known a man who could sacrifice truly and pretty admirably just to live up to his own self-image. Some people sacrifice in the ecstatic rush of mass belonging. Sacrifice is actually something people do for a complex set of reasons.
I don't think people easily stop to share another's pain. I don't think we are easily curious about the human inside of another. They say if you want to fall in love with someone, you can make it happen by asking penetrating questions of them and engaging with their responses. Curiosity is powerful. It opens hearts. It's those curious, loving people who sacrifice from the heart, because getting to know someone is to love them.
Always an interesting read Kevin.
For some time I have not thought much about God's love apart from human interactions. I don't that it is possibly for a spiritual entity to love apart from a physical manifestation through a human medium.
I have seemed to settle in on this idea that love is only great when it involves some sort of sacrifice. All other 'love' seems powerless. No other kind has the power to transform. I think that people want this kind of love. Yet it is a tad rare because of the cost of the sacrifice.
Thinking about marriage and divorce, there doesn't seem to be any logic or formulas - no rhyme or reason. Crap happens. Dreams die. Life gets hard. There is collateral damage. Yet sometimes, both (it has to be both) find a way to continue the journey of live together.
I ramble on. Blessings to you my friend.
I'll tell you, Bob. Your comment heartens me. I've been working toward the ground you stake out here. It's so hard for me to unlink from my Fundamentalism, because it's not a decision at all. It's a whole-person wiring. My brain simply is a believer in God's love and overwhelming involvement in my daily life. After 50 years, my brain makes core decisions as if God were exactly what I was taught God is. That decision-making has netted me some good success, and I could always blame my failures on things outside of faulty reasoning about God. Looking back, I see your analysis of God's connection to people explains my life better than my old one. Thank you.
And I agree, it's all about loving the people in front of us. Now, I just need to figure out the real way to do that. I was given this death-centric narrative of love, and that has not helped me. Dying-to-self to love others is not a thing. You talk about sacrifice, but I think we need to ask ourselves what sacrifice really is. I was taught it's only valuable if I'm dying to self in some way, but I think it's a pertinent sacrifice to let another person's pain trump our own.
I think, maybe, it's more a matter of stopping and seeing other people, being curious about them. I'm thinking love might be refusing to assume we know people because we can call out some trait about them, not filing them away in our minds as heroes, villains, or NPCs. It might be looking hard enough to find in everyone the same complexity we always feel inside ourselves, and letting their complexity displace our quick fixes. It might actually be realizing there's no sacrifice we can make that will erase their pain, and standing with them anyway.
Love your rambling.
I think that love has to be more than warm feelings. More than sex. More than companionship. Seems like it has to be at least a bit sacrificial. It has to be something substantial. Perhaps it is a mix of many things?
This verse from Acts speaks to me about what love looked like in the life of the early church. "Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need."
Sacrifice is found with love. I agree. I'm trying to dig a little deeper, though. Sacrifice is also found in narcissism and infatuation and in manipulation. I've known people very well, from long hours with him in a mirror, who have sacrificed on earth for someone whose pain I did not really see. I believe when we truly see the pain and complexity of someone's experience our sacrifice springs from a truer place within us.
Those Christians in Acts could have been sharing all things in common because they were looking for a reward from God. Ananias was sacrificing some portion of his wealth in search of admiration from people. I've known a man who could sacrifice truly and pretty admirably just to live up to his own self-image. Some people sacrifice in the ecstatic rush of mass belonging. Sacrifice is actually something people do for a complex set of reasons.
I don't think people easily stop to share another's pain. I don't think we are easily curious about the human inside of another. They say if you want to fall in love with someone, you can make it happen by asking penetrating questions of them and engaging with their responses. Curiosity is powerful. It opens hearts. It's those curious, loving people who sacrifice from the heart, because getting to know someone is to love them.
My thinking is that love involves sacrifice. Yet. I agree that sacrifice is not an evidence of love.