Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Gravity of Love

I've been thinking a lot lately about how my deepest hunger and thirst is for more of Your presence, God, and for more of Your Love. That's something that is at the heart of every person whether they realize it or not.

I just read this passage in Irresistible Evangelism by Steve Sjogren, Dave Ping, and Doug Polluck that I really liked:

The Gravity of Love

A warm, soft bed at the end of an exhausting workday; an ice-cold glass of water on a sweltering summer afternoon; the tiny, trembling fingers of a newborn infant - these are a few of the things that are simply irresistible to most people. They appeal directly to powerful needs that God designed into each human being. He made us to hunger for comfort and refreshment and to thirst for love. These God-given urges compel us in a way that mere words never could.
     While the Pharisees spent most of their time disputing the meanings of words, Jesus ministered directly to people's needs. He recognized them and invited himself to dinner in their homes. He fed them, served them, and healed their sons, daughters, and mothers. As Jesus ate with them, drank with them, and mended their wounds, he told stories and asked questions that awakened a deep, supernatural thirst within them - a thirst only living water could quench. Jesus' love beckoned to people and drew them closer to God with a spiritual power as basic as gravity. . . .
     Poet Louis Ginsberg once said, "Love is the irresistible desire to be desired irresistible." We all long to feel, taste, and touch unselfish, unconditional love. The longing is a part of our spiritual DNA. In a world filled with disappointment, fear and cynicism, negative forces often muffle but never completely drown out the heavenly Father's call into love. It is always there in the background, waiting to be amplified and clarified by touch - the touch of God's people. When touches bearing God's mercy and kindness get through, mysterious and wonderful transformations begin to take place. 
Love is metaphysical gravity.
-R. Buckminster Fuller
. . . a more intimate and life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ . . . the basic inner yearnings and spiritual receptivity that God has built into the hearts of all people.
That's what I want, God! for Your Love to shine through my life to others and for them to know You truly and deeply and for them to realize how great Your Love is for them!!!
     And even though I already know You - I realize that my deepest hunger and thirst and desire in life is to know You more and to experience Your great and perfect Love!!!
Your love is life to me / My truest longing / My deepest need, yeah / Without it one moment / I don't know where I'd be / Your love is life to me. -Avalon lyrics
     Sometimes I mistakenly try to fill that longing with other things like wanting to get married someday or wanting a purpose/mission/job in life or the approval and friendship of others. And sometimes You do speak Your Love to me through those things - but I don't ever want them to take Your place!!! I want everything as it should be - not to be idols that distract me from You but as signs pointing me back to You - the true source of my deepest need for Love. Living Water. Bread of Life.  the One who Loves me truest and best :)
     I love You too, God!!!

"Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love."
-1 Corinthians 13:13 


Saturday, February 5, 2011

To the Love of my life


I am in the desert and in the trial, God. I am a confused and broken lost sheep. You brought me here to refine me and for me to learn and grow, but You did not bring me here to abandon me nor will You leave it up to me to figure things out on my own. You are my Good Shepherd, who never leaves nor forsakes me, and You will bring me out of this and show me just what I need to know when I need to know it. You will always be with me in whatever I face in life, both the good and the bad. You are good, God. You work all for good, God. You began a good work in me, and You will see it through to completion. I love You too!

“Better is one day in your courts
   than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
   the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
   from those whose walk is blameless.
 LORD Almighty,
   blessed is the one who trusts in you.”
-Psalm 84:10-12