Intolerable
(WARNING: Excessive use of Love; side effects might be to think I am going soft and gushy...do not be alarmed. Still hard and crusty as ever)
What is it like to have a relationship with Love?
I am not just talking about being “in love,” or in a relationship where love is central, but with Love. Kreeft says, “Love is God’s essence. Scripture says God is just and merciful, but it does not say that God is just itself or mercy itself. It does say that God IS love, not just a lover.”
What if the object of YOUR relationship was Love Himself? What would happen to you over time in that relationship? If people become, take on the hue and nature of the things that they give most of their time to, or with whom they are most intimately involved, then what would be the result of being so with Love?
If George Macdonald is right when he says "Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds...it spends itself to make more lovely," and you are that which it beholds, then what would happen? The quick answer would be that you become more lovely…what every guy wants to hear, I’m sure. (Works for gals, I am guessing, but I am not one so won’t presume).
But, if GM is right, can we not trust that Love’s affection, Love’s intention, Love’s desire for us is to become more the very thing Love had in mind, when Love created…you…and me?
What’s the alternative?
(There are so many roads to go on this answer but for now…)
Love is only another characteristic of God, like justice, or mercy, and therefore not central. Then we don’t have a relationship with Love, but someone else. This sounds more familiar to how WE like to have things. Give me only that what I can handle and if you give me more you are off your rocker, or cruel, or something I don’t want Hell, you tell me I have a relationship with Love and that the only result is to become MORE, to become CLEARER, me, and that’s pretty frightening. Because that means Love’s actions towards me will ALWAYS be loving, will ALWAYS be making more…Lovely, more that what Love had in mind. So give me God without the essence as Love and I will have a much more tolerable relationship.
“But God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us too much," said Lewis.
Intolerable indeed.
What is it like to have a relationship with Love?
I am not just talking about being “in love,” or in a relationship where love is central, but with Love. Kreeft says, “Love is God’s essence. Scripture says God is just and merciful, but it does not say that God is just itself or mercy itself. It does say that God IS love, not just a lover.”
What if the object of YOUR relationship was Love Himself? What would happen to you over time in that relationship? If people become, take on the hue and nature of the things that they give most of their time to, or with whom they are most intimately involved, then what would be the result of being so with Love?
If George Macdonald is right when he says "Love has ever in view the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds...it spends itself to make more lovely," and you are that which it beholds, then what would happen? The quick answer would be that you become more lovely…what every guy wants to hear, I’m sure. (Works for gals, I am guessing, but I am not one so won’t presume).
But, if GM is right, can we not trust that Love’s affection, Love’s intention, Love’s desire for us is to become more the very thing Love had in mind, when Love created…you…and me?
What’s the alternative?
(There are so many roads to go on this answer but for now…)
Love is only another characteristic of God, like justice, or mercy, and therefore not central. Then we don’t have a relationship with Love, but someone else. This sounds more familiar to how WE like to have things. Give me only that what I can handle and if you give me more you are off your rocker, or cruel, or something I don’t want Hell, you tell me I have a relationship with Love and that the only result is to become MORE, to become CLEARER, me, and that’s pretty frightening. Because that means Love’s actions towards me will ALWAYS be loving, will ALWAYS be making more…Lovely, more that what Love had in mind. So give me God without the essence as Love and I will have a much more tolerable relationship.
“But God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us too much," said Lewis.
Intolerable indeed.