Tuesday, December 22, 2009

NO STRINGS

Love beyond love. It sounds silly but there is such a thing.

When we think of love we think all sorts of things. One person’s definition or interpretation never meets with the next person’s, or if it does it never lasts that way for long. We need to do something about that... or do we?

Imagine the scenario: loving. Wanting absolutely nothing in return. Indeed, take it one step further. Imagine not just not wanting nothing in return, but actively not wanting it... avoiding it. Unless, that was, that avoiding the kudos meant offending the person loved. Then it could not be. The other person is unconditionally paramount.

True love is hence defined.

We don’t truly love unless we do so without the strings attached. No strings. Period. Yet, it’s such a hard thing to do and this is because it involves purity. It requires holiness from us. It requires we shelve all our fear. Fear of not being recognised, for one! Fear of not being known as the hero.

We’re held interminably back in our conditional love. We never sow true love so we never reap the urgent spoil of pervading grace—that thing that God so ardently wants to shower us with.

So, there we have it. Let us practice a more pure love. A love that is so very foreign to this world—even foreign to the known church, for the most part—yet a love that must be visible in us so the world can truly see Christ Jesus, the author and perfector of this love.

True expressed love is about giving ourselves away; us, our money, our things, our time, our fear... anything that might hold us.

And this is what makes it so difficult for us. We hate letting go. But, we must.

© 2009 S. J. Wickham.

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