Love

My Two-year Old Professional Distractor

TimeClock from Bing Images I was finally free. After my many attempts at updating my blog throughout the day had been thwarted by my two-year old professional distractor, it was time, at last. I could breathe deep, soak in the silence, sit at the computer, and write without interruption.

One keystroke into my blog post, I heard the door creak open in forewarning that the third escape attempt was now underway. Soon enough, the little escapee was tugging at my pant leg, staring me into compliance with his heart-melting teddy bear eyes. “Mommy, I need you!” How could I resist?

Since he was a baby, I’ve cuddled him to sleep every night. Usually, I wait for him to be completely knocked out before I tiptoe away. And sometimes, I abide at least three Mommy I Need You rounds before he’s officially “out.”

That night, I wasn’t so patient. I plopped him in the high chair, turned on some sure-to-put-him-to-sleep music, handed him a sippy cup, and returned to the blogosphere. Convinced he was finally asleep after several minutes of quiet, I turned to find him peering around the back of his highchair, just staring at me with those eyes as if to say, “What on that screen could possibly be more interesting and important than me?”

There are days I get so involved in the tasks before me that I forget the most important thing is to be involved in the lives of those I love. My computer screen may be calling me. A million important tasks might be screaming my name. But love is calling me to be involved in what’s most important. At the end of my life, do I want it to be said that I was very involved in the task at hand? No. I want to be known for being committed to the work of love.

It won’t be long enough that my kids are saying, “Mommy, I need you.” And even beyond those years of them saying they need me, I want to show them I love them by being involved in their lives—meeting their deepest needs for quality time, even if it means sacrificing my own plans.

“My whole life I complained that my work was being interrupted until I realized that the interruptions were my work.” (Henri Nouwen)

True Love…is INVOLVED (Day 13, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

Love Makes Sense

Equation from Bing Images This is a test. This is only a test. For the duration of one sentence I will attempt to write something legible while placing my fingers on random keys. Pty8w 8s 9ho6 q 53w5l, j fdldzg gbjx jx kn,h z fdxg. I repeat, this is only a test.

Now, if you can, please interpret the fourth sentence of the previous paragraph. Can’t do it? Of course not. My fingers weren’t on the home keys. I placed them wherever I wanted, and just typed.

When it comes to typing on a keyboard, you have to follow some guidelines if you want the outcome to make sense. It’s the same in love. Love was never meant to be confusing. In reality, it’s as simple as, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

As a teacher, I spend a lot of time developing my young students’ reading skills. The goal is for the children to learn certain words, but with the limited options given for a particular skill set, some stories in their little readers don’t make sense. One time, after reading one of those nonsensical stories, a five-year old student asked, “What was that supposed to mean?”

We can try to make our own guidelines for love, just as I placed my hands on the keyboard wherever I wanted. But the outcome will make about as much sense as the random words strewn together in a children’s reader or the completely illegible sentence in the first paragraph here. Only when my hands are placed on the home keys do the words come out in a logical way.

Jesus is our “home base” when it comes to love. He is the one who created the golden rule of do unto others, and he is the one who lived out the golden rule by living a life of perfect love and dying a death of sacrificial love. When I feel confused about life and love, I just have to look at the ultimate definition of love. And that makes sense.

True Love…MAKES SENSE (Day 12, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

A Deeper Hunger

Harvest from Bing Images Katniss Everdeen and Anastasia Steele: two different stories, two contrasting journeys. Both are hungry. For one, this hunger leads to heroism, for the other, to the arms of a sadistic villain.

Though both stories portray a culture of brutal violence, there are glaring differences between the themes of the Hunger Games and 50 Shades. Katniss—the heroine of the Hunger Games, recognizes this culture of brutality as wrong, not succumbing to its pervasive evil. Instead, she hungers for something better. Her undying loyalty to her sister grows into a sacrificial love for her people. She will not bow to President Snow. And she will give her life to defend her people from his malicious plans.

In stark contrast to the Hunger Games, 50 Shades celebrates the culture of brutality, painting a deceptive picture that a person can fall into the arms of unabashed violence and emerged unscathed. The story attempts to normalize what is a nightmarish reality for millions of human trafficking victims across the globe.

Katniss’ hunger is driven by a love for her people. This love leads her to become a symbol of courage, saving her generation from pervasive evil whatever the cost. Anastasia’s insecurity leads her to find fulfillment in torturous, manipulative lust, and in so doing she leads a generation into the same deception that has entrapped untold numbers in abusive relationships, modern slavery, and the grave itself.

Mother Teresa once said, “The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” How we go about satiating our deepest hunger will, in the end, determine whether we are filled or left empty. A hunger driven by selfishness will lead to pain; a hunger driven by selflessness will lead to life.

True love hungers for goodness. It hungers to protect itself and those it loves from the entrapments of deception and abuse, and to free others from lies, manipulation, and violence. The greatest hero of all time had such a hunger. He died on a cross so we could be free from the penalty and power of depravity. He died that we can live in a love that brings life, not suffering and death. God, change our appetites! Let us hunger for what is good. And let this hunger move us to act courageously to protect our generation, and future generations, from that which would seek to destroy.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

True Love…HUNGERS (Day 11, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

The Fad that Never Fades

Clothing Closet from Google Images I’ve lived long enough to see the best and worst of fads come, go, and sometimes come back again. In the seventies, it was bellbottoms, polyester, and garishly bright patterns. For the eighties—big hair, even bigger glasses, bomber jackets, and terrycloth. My high school friend called me in the early nineties, crying because she heard bellbottoms were on their way back in. And who would guess that skinny jeans would strike again in the new millennium?

Fads are as changing as the seasons. But there’s one thing that is more timeless than eternity. Love.

The call to love one another has been going forth throughout all of history. Those who choose love as their favored garment have chosen the one unfading fad. And the God who loves us with an everlasting love has always been and will forever remain.

Love is the one thing that will never go out of style. It has been from before the beginning of the world, and will be beyond the end. Times change, minds change, people change, and fashions change. But love never fades.

“For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” (1 John 3:11)

True Love…is TIMELESS (Day 10, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

Everlasting Love

Eternity from Google Images On Friday, he wrote on a social media site about his plans for the future. That Sunday, friends were writing messages on his page, telling him how much he’d be missed. He was only eighteen, and his life came to a sudden end after a tragic accident.

I didn’t know him well, but my heart has been grieving since I heard the news. So young. So unexpected. So final. And all who loved him were left with a gaping hole in their hearts.

We never know when we’ll take our final breath. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. And what are we living for today?

If we are living with only the hope of our future here on this earth, we’re missing the greater design. There is a hope that is greater than anything this earth can provide. There is a love that outlasts all that our eyes can see. Nothing here is permanent, nothing everlasting. Everything we see is changing and turning, fading and dying.

But God, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, has given us a gift. He’s given the promise of eternal life. We don’t have to live in fear of death, because God has provided life that is truly life—life that is everlasting, in a world with no more hate, only love.

As with any gift, we need only accept it. Though God paid a tremendous price to purchase the gift for us, we pay nothing for this gift. It is a free gift. It cannot be earned, or it would cease to be a gift.

We are free to reject the gift, or to take it and leave it unopened on the shelf of our life. But to do so is to live without the hope and love wrapped inside. When we receive the gift as it was meant to be received, when we open it and embrace it with our entire being, we find hope for this life and for the life to come. We live with purpose each day, knowing that even if tomorrow doesn’t come, something far greater lies ahead.

In Heaven, God will “wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” (Revelation 21:4). All that will remain is love. This is the ultimate gift, and our greatest hope. It is gift worth receiving.

“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

True Love…is EVERLASTING (Day 9, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

Sincere Love vs. Hijacked Faith

Book of Love from Google Images Have you ever gotten fake likes on social media? The ones where someone “likes” your blog post, but when you check the stats you can tell they never read it? Or those “follows” on Twitter from someone promoting their business, CD, or book that go away if you don’t instantly follow back? Or the ones who add you on certain site to boost their own numbers—not because they’re interested in what you have to say? Yeah, it annoys me, too.

Just as there are fake followers on social media, there are insincere followers of the Christian faith. The Bible says that love must be sincere. Unfortunately, there are those who twist the faith for selfish purposes.

From what I’ve heard of the main speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, I agree on this one point…we should never seek to hijack religion for our own personal or political gain. And if we are honest about history, it’s happened in every faith. We need to admit that there are counterfeits of Christianity out there, and these counterfeits have twisted what was meant to be good into a man-made farce. The problem comes in thinking that because counterfeits exist, all must be counterfeit. In truth, having a counterfeit means the real thing’s got to be out there, we just have to take a closer look.

Jesus himself spoke of separating the sheep from the goats. They may look similar from the outside, but at closer glance there are differences. I doubt Jesus meant to pick on the goats, but in a symbolic measure they represent the bad guys—those who claim to follow Christ yet live in selfish ignorance. The sheep are the good guys, representing those who live what they believe in lives of sincere, sacrificial love.

Obviously, those in history who used scripture to justify slavery were the goats of the pack. They were as the evil, hypocritical Pharisees Jesus himself condemned in his day. Yet we must remember that multitudes of escaped slaves and abolitionists were people of a strong, true, and sincere faith (think Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William and Ellen Craft, Josiah Henson, and Henry “Box” Brown, to name a few). Their Christian faith persevered through great suffering and drove them to fight impossible odds for the freedom of all slaves. They were the real deal.

The end argument is that faith must be sincere, and is evidenced by love in action. Jesus himself admitted there were those who hijacked religion, so why can’t we? The existence of faith-hijackers is evidence there’s something real out there and we need to find it.

I think of how Jesus refused the opportunity to become an earthly king—knowing that loving self-sacrifice, even death on a cross was his calling. So if I’m going to look at what Christianity is all about, I’m not going to look at the hijackers. I’m gonna look at the one whose love was so sincere he was willing to die for the sins of the world.

We may not agree with all that was spoken at the prayer breakfast, but at least this whole thing brings to light that there are sheep and there are goats—counterfeits, and the real thing. As for me, I want to be counted among the sheep. I want my faith to be genuine, and my love to be sincere.

“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil, cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)

True Love is…SINCERE (Day 7, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)

Stars Without Makeup

Masquerade from Google Images There’s something more captivating about one picture of a star without makeup than all the paparazzi’s red carpet photos combined. What is it that makes the headline “Stars Without Makeup” such a common theme in modern media? It’s the opportunity to see beyond the air-brushed mask of idyllic glamour into the reality of what these stars really are…human.

Sometimes while standing in the checkout line, I catch a glimpse of a de-glammed star photo and something tugs at my heart. Compassion, maybe. I feel for that person behind the mask who lives in a prison of luxury, shackled to the trappings of fame—a slave of the ever-watching world..

If you look closely enough, beyond the smiles on even a glammed-up photo, you’ll see the sadness. The emptiness. The loneliness and disappointment. The toll that stardom has taken on a mere mortal. It’s something reminiscent of the story of King Midas, who in his lust for gold lost all that really mattered to him.

This looking beyond masks applies to us regular folk, too. We all wear masks sometimes. But the trained eye of true love can see beyond.

There was a woman on the run, in the desert, fighting for her life and that of her son. God met her in the desert with a display of tender compassion that nourished her soul and brought her back to life. There, in her deepest place of desperation, she bestowed this name upon her rescuer: “The God who sees.”

He sees into our hearts—our deepest places of darkness, and loves us still—bidding us to discard our masks and come as we are. Empty. Broken. Yet free. True love SEES.

“She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13)

True Love…SEES (Day 6, #50ShadesOfTrueLove)