A Holiday Wedding!

Please forgive the delay between posts! I've been quite busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, including traveling to New Mexico for a family vacation, and to officiate my brother-in-law's wedding, an incredible honor! It was a wonderful time for us, as we don't get nearly enough time with that part of the family. (It did seem a little odd, however, to have everyone watching the Vanderbilt/Tennessee game, and not be the only Vandy fan in the house! Great game - GO 'DORES!!) Which brings me to my musings today.

Weddings have been around almost as long as humans have inhabited the planet.

Boy meets Girl,
Boy hits Girl over the head with club.
Boy drags Girl into cave by hair.
And they lived happily, ever after.
The End.

Except it isn't the end. After all this time, people still get married every day. Why would such an antiquated system still be used in today's modern world?

It comes down to the meaning of TRUE love. Not just a love of attraction, although attraction is not a bad thing in itself. (If attraction is based solely on beauty, however, it's lust, not attraction. Good rule of thumb from Billy Graham - If you look once, it's admiration, If you Keep On looking...) True love changes your focus, changes your priorities, changes you. This is how Paul describes it in 1st Corinthians 13: 4-8

     Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

When two people feel that way for each other, nothing short of marriage will honor their commitment to each other, It is when two people both can say "I want to give you my heart, soul, hopes and dreams" and both can say "I want to take your heart, soul, hopes and dreams, and cherish them as my own" that marriage is justified. It is just such love that represents how much Jesus loves us. He gives himself totally, freely. He asks that we give Him our heart, soul, hopes and dreams, not to become empty slaves, but so that He can protect and nourish us, so that our heart, soul, hopes and dreams can be fulfilled. This is why true love needs marriage in today's world. This is why we, in this world, need Christ's true love.

Faith, Hope, and Love abide; these three, but the greatest of these is Love.

and...

GO 'DORES! (also Go UNM Lobos, but that's another story!)

The Problem with Hate

"We have so many battles going on in America today that we should be a people of prayer. Our leaders need prayer. Our schools need prayer. Our youth need our prayers. Our families need our prayers." - Billy Graham (in a Facebook post from Franklin Graham.)

My heart is extremely heavy this morning. I awoke to the news that at the end of what had been a peaceful demonstration, police officers were attacked in a vicious, organized military-like assault, creating a further divide in an already tense society. And it all stems from hate. Whether it is from distrust, fear or ignorance, it is still hate. This hate will not go away. It is a part of this world, and has been since Adam's fall. It was here before us, and will be here after us, unless Jesus returns to save us from ourselves.

There are those today who are blaming the media, saying its constant reporting is only making things worse. There are those on both sides of the gun control issue, each using this a "proof" of their position. There are even those using this as a political Republican/Democrat battle. I'll not go into the relevance of any of these issues, because they do not actually address the problem. The media is not the issue. Gun control is not the issue. Politics is not the issue. HATE is the issue. HATE is the target we should focus on. HATE is what we must fight.

I've long believed that right and just causes, when fueled by hate, are still wrong and unjust. If God is love as 1 John 4 states, then if follows (vs. 19-21) that anything fueled by hate is not of God. The beginning of this chapter states very clearly that the spirits are to be tested, because not everything is of God. Trouble is, there seems to be more rash judgments than testing of spirits going on.

Then how are we to battle the hate that is consuming our world at a more rapid and rabid pace that ever before. 1 John 4 contains a key to this as well.

"Greater is He in you that he that is in the world" (vs.4)

 

But we cannot use God as our own personal weapon of destruction, releasing a barrage on our enemies, raining fire from above. So then, what? Verse 7 contains that answer.

 

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God"

 

The only way the world will see anything but hate, is to show love, even to those undeserving. (Matthew 5: 43-48) Especially to those undeserving, because they need it most. Jesus cannot operate fully through His church unless His church operates through His love. Without love, all of our "good intentions" and "righteous causes" are no better than a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. (1 Corinthians 13)

 

So in response to the world today, I suggest first, we pray. Then, we reach out to all who are hurting, whose passion and fear and hate drive them on, and show them something revolutionary...love. God's unfailing love. In the fight against hate, this is the only weapon we truly have. The only weapon we need.