Agape
03 Jan 2007 Leave a Comment
in agape, love, Ravi Zacharias
Can a sweater make you feel smarter? I found this old vintage wool cardigan in a box last week. It’s kind of ugly and scratchy, but so incredibly warm. I decided that I’ll wear it each time I sit down to begin studying. So far today it has worked. Information seems to be soaking into my brain so much better today than yesterday. Either it’s the sweater or the morphine has worn off and my fog has lifted!
I am fascinated today with Agape love. Ravi Zacharias is a world renowned speaker and author. In the mid 1980s, he was the Spiritual Emphasis Week speaker at Dalat High School in Penang, Malaysia where I attended. He spent the week talking to us about love. (I even had breakfast with him one morning). To this day, the only thing I remember from any of the speakers in the four years I attended was something that Ravi said.
“Love is an act of your will. You will wake up one morning, in bed with your spouse, and you will not feel mushy gushy anymore. You may have to will yourself to love them.”
That has stayed with me all these years, and may I say, I have put it into practice on occasion. And I am sure Andy has too.
But, that statement for me embodies Agape love. The unabashed, unconditional love for everyone, regardless of how we feel about them otherwise. An act of the will, which then manifests itself in action and deed without thought to reward.
Would that we all Love one another!
Unashamed Desire!
07 Nov 2006 Leave a Comment
in agape, Bible, Christianity, Faith, love, passion
Unashamed Desire
I have fallen in love many times in my life. At least, I think so. The heart fluttering, sweaty palms kind of nausea that we come to recognize as falling hard. I have never been a man, but I imagine these feelings are similar for them. I have watched otherwise normal men I know get really foolish in the presence of women and can only imagine they are ready to buckle any minute. It’s great! If only it could be bottled and sprayed on every morning, the aroma of that kind of fresh new love would sustain us all through each crazy moment!
I remember the night I met my husband, I didn’t actual fall in love….I jumped feet first towards it and landed hard! And then I pursued this man. I called him all the time. I sent him balloons. I worked night shift and would stay up all day if it meant I’d get to hang out with him for a while. I memorized his voice, the way he walked, and I couldn’t get the thought of him out of my head. The first time he held me I nearly fainted, I felt so safe. He’d say things to me and I’d believe everything he told me about myself. He told me I was pretty, I was fun and one day that he loved me. I was relentless about wanting to be with him in every imaginable way. Nothing else in my agenda mattered if the promise of his time was there. I wanted to get to know everything about him. To learn his likes, his dislikes and what his dreams were. Every day I was excited to learn something new and I couldn’t wait to build a future with him!
I have begun to feel that unabashed, unembarrassed, anxious, impatient desire again. This time though,not with any man, but with my God. Jeremiah 1 says that before I was even a thought in a woman’s mind, He knew me. It doesn’t say that I was an afterthought or that I was someone He’d like to get to know, but that He already KNEW me! Wahoo! He has always known me, now I want to know him. He wants that too, and has made it really simple for me to do. In my hands, I hold His words and thoughts. He has written me a love letter and each morning I read another page. I have begun to read His Word as though it was written just for me. Each letter penned with love and a passionate desire for me to learn to know Him and everything He dreams of. I want to immerse myself in Him. Not only to hide His words in my heart in order to stay blameless, but to turn to his Word for everything. My first answer to any question should come from His heart, not my own. I want to drown in his love, to breathe out everything that I breathe in from his letter to me. Each night as I lay down, I tell Him that I can’t wait to talk with Him again in the morning, and the excitement I get when He wakes me is awesome! It’s that fresh new love, sweaty palms, crazy excited feeling again. I can’t wait to hear what fantastic thing He’ll teach me about my life and his desires today.
I have found in Him my perfect friend, wholly sovereign authority in my life and the lover of my soul. In the words of Moses to the Lord, “You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you.”
So You Say