Saturday, August 23, 2008
Update on me
I'm still around, just busy working and such. I'm also still having health problems and would appreciate your prayers. I don't really feel sick, but I have stomach pain and keep losing weight (now below 100 lbs). Of course, that makes me very tired. I don't know what's wrong though....
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Love-- Part 2
From Frederick Buechner:
In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as easily produce a cozy emotional feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze. On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. Thus in Jesus' terms, we can love our neighbors without necessarily liking them. In fact liking them may stand in the way of loving them by making us overprotective sentimentalists instead of reasonably honest friends....
This does not mean that liking may not be a part of loving, only that it doesn't have to be. Sometimes liking follows on the heels of loving. It is hard to work for people's well-being very long without coming in the end to rather like them too.
In the Christian sense, love is not primarily an emotion, but an act of the will. When Jesus tells us to love our neighbors, he is not telling us to love them in the sense of responding to them with a cozy emotional feeling. You can as easily produce a cozy emotional feeling on demand as you can a yawn or a sneeze. On the contrary, he is telling us to love our neighbors in the sense of being willing to work for their well-being even if it means sacrificing our own well-being to that end, even if it means sometimes just leaving them alone. Thus in Jesus' terms, we can love our neighbors without necessarily liking them. In fact liking them may stand in the way of loving them by making us overprotective sentimentalists instead of reasonably honest friends....
This does not mean that liking may not be a part of loving, only that it doesn't have to be. Sometimes liking follows on the heels of loving. It is hard to work for people's well-being very long without coming in the end to rather like them too.
Pippin's Hatch Day
Today, I am celebrating Pippin's 6th Hatch Day! We're having cornbread for the occasion. I'm really thankful I have such a wonderful, smart, affectionate feathered friend, and I'm grateful for her efficient hatching (as I was promised the first bird who hatched in her clutch).
Happy Hatch Day, baby bird!
Happy Hatch Day, baby bird!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Love: The Litmus Test
I Cor. 13-- the love chapter-- is one of those things that's great to quote and really hard to live. Part of it is hard just because it's HARD to love others effectively. Another reason is that sometimes I equate loving people with having to put up with behavior that's really rather harmful. More on that in a minute.....
Anyway, here is I Cor. 13:1-7 in The Message version of the Bible:
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Okay, I'm decent at doing some of those. I don't give up on people easily. I can put others first. I rarely "fly off the handle." However, I keep score and tend to hold a grudge...unless I feel that the person has apologized "appropriately" (that being my definition). I'm working on that. Now..."puts up with anything...." I think I do that too much....and I don't think that's the best translation there.
Here's verse 7 in the Amplified Bible: "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]." The difference is subtle, but important, I think. I see it as the distinction between putting up with bad behavior...versus loving someone through that, even if that means drawing limits.
Overall, what I think this passage highlights is the need for a supernatural work of God. I can't love like this on my own. I don't know anyone who can. When I used to work in special ed, changing diapers of 12 year olds, I remember clearly coming to the end of my love and affection for these kids....and realizing that was okay because God has limitless love for them. I prayed that God would give me HIS love for them, and He did. I still pray that a lot, particularly when working with more challenging (& obnoxious!) students.
I need God to give me His love and perspective for the people in my life. Mother Teresa: "People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them anyway." It's hard though.....
Anyway, here is I Cor. 13:1-7 in The Message version of the Bible:
1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
Okay, I'm decent at doing some of those. I don't give up on people easily. I can put others first. I rarely "fly off the handle." However, I keep score and tend to hold a grudge...unless I feel that the person has apologized "appropriately" (that being my definition). I'm working on that. Now..."puts up with anything...." I think I do that too much....and I don't think that's the best translation there.
Here's verse 7 in the Amplified Bible: "Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]." The difference is subtle, but important, I think. I see it as the distinction between putting up with bad behavior...versus loving someone through that, even if that means drawing limits.
Overall, what I think this passage highlights is the need for a supernatural work of God. I can't love like this on my own. I don't know anyone who can. When I used to work in special ed, changing diapers of 12 year olds, I remember clearly coming to the end of my love and affection for these kids....and realizing that was okay because God has limitless love for them. I prayed that God would give me HIS love for them, and He did. I still pray that a lot, particularly when working with more challenging (& obnoxious!) students.
I need God to give me His love and perspective for the people in my life. Mother Teresa: "People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them anyway." It's hard though.....
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