Friday, March 2, 2012
Love
Are you Real?
Indulge me as I share one of my favorite passages of a beloved children's story, The Velveteen Rabbit. The setting is in the 1800s at Christmas time. The velveteen rabbit was merely a stocking stuffer, not good enough to be placed under the Christmas tree, because it was made of a cheap fabric, stuffed with sawdust. It didn't even have legs, just a roundish body, head with ears and stubs for front legs that were more like arms. We find the rabbit conversing with the rocking horse in the nursery.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
The Importance of Love
I love this story because it speaks of "becoming real" the author's way of speaking of "eternal life" in a sense. But what makes this so special is the power that causes this change to occur. It was love. You see, the boy who owned the rabbit loved the rabbit fiercely, slept with it dragged it to the garden, had tea parties with it. You know, spent every waking hour with this cheaply made, anatomically incorrect, stocking stuffer.
We've all heard stories, sermons, read books and talked amongst ourselves about love. But do we really believe in it? I know, what a silly question, right? But let me ask you this. Where does love start? Does it start with God? Of course(1 John 4:10), but what if we don't think we are worthy of His love. What if we've seen the bumper sticker "John 3:16" so many times that it becomes a bit cliche? Listen to me carefully here. God really does love us, each one! But unless we believe it, practice the faith we learned about last week, it won't matter much...will it? Because life hurts. Life runs us down. Life sometimes simply sucks. And when we let those moments become our control factors, it chokes the ability of the Holy Spirit to work in and out of us. It's times like those when we need to crawl into Abba's lap and pray..
Hear, oh Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When thou saidst, "Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger; thou has been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation." Psalms 27:7-9
When we get to that point, and are able to believe that God will never leave us, nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5), then we can truly begin to do an amazing thing, to love ourselves! What? Love ourselves? Yes, it is key to truly grow in the Holy Spirit. What I mean by that is if we allow God's love to work in us, we will be able to withstand anything in life. We will begin to live our lives in a way that will protect our minds, our bodies, and in turn protect those around us, at least to a point. This is a sweeping thought, I know, and a bit simple minded. But, nevertheless it is true.
The practical application of Love
The two greatest commandments according to Jesus is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, then to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37,39). Then He continues in saying on these two things hang all the laws and the prophets. What he means here is, there is no law higher than love (Galatians 5:22-23). That if we love God, others, and ourselves, we will act, think and live accordingly. Without this love, only possible through God, we cannot do holy things, think holy thoughts, pray holy prayers, live a holy life.
What is Real? It happens when you are loved unconditionally, to the point of sacrifice. As the author of this wonderful story puts it..."once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." We have someone that took care of that part (John 3:16...I know, I couldn't help it), now what we get to do is reciprocate that love by learning God's word, growing and using the Holy Spirit in our minds, and lives. And pushing those actions out to those around us. If we can really get the feeling of what Paul means in I Corinthians 13:1-13, we will be able to truly move spiritual mountains, be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves, and have a prayer life that won't quit.
This week, I am going to ask each of you, myself included, to choose one of the items in I Corinthians 13 and practice it. For example, out of God's love, watch your communication towards others. Be mindful of what type of example you are setting at work, practice mind control...meaning, when an angry thought comes into your mind, refocus that thought. If we get that "who does he/she think he/she is" remember, we don't know what hell is going on in their mind, so pray for mercy and peace for yourself and the person involved. I'm not asking you to be a soft hearted "God bless you" kind of person. I am asking you to "think" about what is going on, how you interact with others, and practice controlling those harsh thoughts that may come and go day to day. One week. Let's try it together.
Oh, and the story of the velveteen rabbit. The rabbit did get to experience what real was, despite of his cheaply made, shunned self that became worn, ugly and finally thrown away as garbage to be burned. As the conversation above was ending, the Skin Horse made a wonderful comment. The rabbit asked...
"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. "The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always."
Let's practice being Real. I pray you will be filled with the Holy Spirit of Love this week.
Here are some verses to consider for our daily devotion time. I know there are more than 7, but there are soooo many to choose from, ha ha.
1 John 4:10-12 John 15:19
Romans 8:38-39 2 Timothy 6:10,11
2 Corinthians 6:3-7 Galatians 5:5,6
Philippians 1:8-11 Colossians 2:2
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First of all I just want to say thank you. Thank you, for starting this conversation three weeks ago. I can honestly say that this process has changed my life! Not in a tent revival halleluiah come to Jesus change, but a change nonetheless. In a not so small way I have changed my Saturday morning ritual. I read your topic for the week and then I go about doing a little research to see if there is anything that I might contribute that would be worthwhile. In the process I'm changing myself, I am growing spiritually more and more, and for that I am eternally grateful for the catalyst of this change, namely you.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of Love, I first turned to Dr. Wayne Dyer and behold the synchronicity, Dr. Dyer states that in his home he has a copy of I Corinthians 13 framed in his home and that he reads it every time that he walks down the hallway to his children's bedroom, "it reminds me that the greatest gift I can offer them, and the world, is the universal synthesizer. Love!" Now, I must say I was a bit confused about the things he wrote in his book, "Wisdom of the Ages" until I realized that in my King James Version of the Bible, Dr. Dyer substituted the word charity with the word love, then it makes perfect sense. "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." I then turned to probably the most in depth book ever written about Love, "The Road Less Traveled. A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth." Now, this is where my gratitude comes in, when I first read this book, it was new, in 1978, 34 years ago. At the time I had a different agenda for reading it, I was more interested in learning about sexual obsessions. Today, I skimmed through several chapters (I fully intend to go back and read them in their entirety) on Dr. Scott Peck's definition of Love. Or rather, he gives the definition and then devotes several chapters to analyzing what he said. Dr. Peck's definition of love is: "The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." As thoroughly as he discussed every key word in that definition, and discusses what love is and what love is not, he himself admits that the subject is so large, so deep, to truly ever be understood or measured in the framework of words (paraphrasing). Just one final comment or thought on the Velveteen Rabbit, though we "love" the story, because of the way it makes us feel, childlike again, note that also in I Corinthians the passage "When I was a child, I space as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
Dr. Peck talks about love and objects, like our Rabbit and Horse in the story, he says, "The feeling of love is the emotion that accompanies the experience of cathecting. Cathecting, it will be remembered, is the process by which an object becomes important to us. Once cathected, the object, commonly referred to as a "love object," is invested with our energy as if it were a part of ourselves, and this relationship between us and the invested object is called a cathexis.... First of all, as has been pointed out, we may cathect any object, animate or inanimate, with or without a spirit.... Finally, our cathexes may be fleeting and momentary.... We may decathect something almost as soon as we have cathected it.... Genuine love, on the other hand, implies commitment and the exercise of wisdom." Sorry, Silly Rabbit, once loved does not mean that you are forever loved.
Haha, great points all, sir. I think the message of the Velveteen Rabbit for me is much more than at the level of mankind. See, the Rabbit, a toy, was made by a human. It therefore had a connection with a "creating being" of sorts being owned by another Human being.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on the rabbit is simple. We are created by God, every part of us, except that which is introduced to us outside that creative act, such as thought based on external input. What the rabbit en samples then is me, being loved by a higher being, God, without per-conceved notions, self motivation bias. And like the rabbit, I am nothing, just some re-arranged dirt, given the very breath to me by God. In fact, I have issues, thoughts, feelings and sicknesses that make me unworthy of His love.
But still, He loves me, not because of anything I did, but because of what His son did for me. Here's where the example breaks down. The boy became very ill, and all his bedding, sleeping clothes, anything that he was around had to be burned to get rid of the potential germs. I have been infected by something too, called sin, but the one who loves me so deeply has never been infected, but died an unworthy death...for me to live. That is what Paul meant when he said to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Because of Christ, I can live a holy life, but I need to die to my self, my sinful self daily.
Great point, keep up the studies and comments. They bless my socks off, haha