Without love, we are without hope.
We are compelled to respond. Whenever we see chaos, uncertainty, massively changing circumstances, we feel this urge to step in. I know this feeling.
There's a reasoning within ourselves - people need peace, they want certainty, they could use advice, and following this line of reasoning, we speak to the situations:
How to live without fear
How to maintain peace in the storm
How to find community
Notice the list above and it will all appear to be in order - a set of highly relevant topics, yet here is the point of today's letter - The problem with taking a topical approach to solving for a deeper, systemic issue.
Topics are handy, sure, easy to digest as well, but extremely ineffective at solving systemic issues. It's like giving instructions on how to love your kids well by writing a series that focuses solely on the birthday party.
Want to be a parent who loves your kids well? Follow this birthday party advice:
Always remember and make a big deal out of the birthday
Tailor it to their interests, favorites, make the day all about them
Invite all the friends and family, show them the community
Hone in on all the details, it's the little things that make the big difference
And while birthday parties can be an expression of love, it's quite clear that birthday parties do not, by themselves, equal loving your kids well.
Whenever we try and answer deeper, fundamental truths by addressing topical issues, we fall short. Even in our example above, let's say we take the topical advice and apply every letter of it, we may still find ourselves far from loving well. Instead:
It's a performance for the guests. There is much to boast about in birthday parties done well.
You may need to be a good mother and most days you don't feel like one. The birthday party is an act of insecurity.
It's the next thing on the do list. It's more rote and repetition than intentional love.
Have we executed in excellence on the topic set before us? Absolutely. And to all who observe, success. Yet, what of the deeper, fundamental, lasting truth of loving our kids well?
You see, issues of the heart are not remedied with topical creams. And for a generation who have been fed a steady diet of take this advice and apply it, take this advice and apply it, take this advice and apply it, deeper answers remain elusive.
What is the heart of the matter then? Love. Put more specifically: Without love we are without hope.
"Though I...but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
"Though I...but have not love, I am nothing."
"Though I...but have not love, it profits me nothing."
Insert any kind of topical excellence into each of the blanks above and you'll quickly see the futility of the matter.
So then, two questions remain:
What is love?
How do I receive this love?
What is love?
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10
How do I receive this love?
"And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:26
Have you yet found this love? Or better put, has this love found you?
God's love?
Christ?
Whether we are praying from love or for love, let a cry rise up within the deepest, most fundamental part of ourselves today, "How long, oh Lord?" The conclusion of this matter is far too important to give up before your answer comes, "Though I...but have not love, I am nothing."
God's love, in me?
Christ, in me?
Do not relent in your burden, "O Lord, how long shall I cry and You will not hear?" Do not relent until you can rejoice with confidence:
God's love, in me!
Christ, in me!
Amen!
--
Here is love vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Here is love, vast as the heavens;
Countless as the stars above
Are the souls that He has ransomed,
Precious daughters, treasured sons.
We are called to feast forever on a love beyond our time;
Glorious Father, Son, and Spirit
Now with man are intertwined.
--
I desire to be a man who prays...
Will you join me in prayer? Thank you for your sacrifice Jesus. Thank you for being the One who was able to act as my representative substitute before God, bearing my sins, taking my guilt upon Yourself, even while I did not love You. Your love is amazing and it compels me. Help us this week to be compelled by this love and to declare Your Father's name, even as You declared His name to us. Amen.
How can I join with you in prayer? Send me a reply with the things you're praying for and I'd love to join with you.
In love,
Derek