What's Love Got To Do With It?

Tina Turner once recorded a song lamenting "What's love got to do with it... Who needs a heart, when a heart can be broken?" It is just one of a "million" songs questioning whether love is ever really worth the trouble. Perhaps people ask the same question about a relationship with God as well?

God is love. This is His most self-defining trait. It might be helpful for us when we think of God and love to think not so much in terms of "God doing lovely things," but that "Love does godly things." You see, love is something that does indescribable things. Love can work miracles in the lives of people and can bring so much beauty to the world, it is impossible to appreciate it all. Love is a powerful force beyond measure.

God is love and whoever doesn't love like God loves doesn't really know God (1 John 4:8). I think rather than God choosing to love, the powerful reality about God is that He IS love. It is as if he is bound by His own nature and therefore He has to act according to that nature! This is what makes that scripture so powerful when it says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son..."

While I can't prove God didn't "choose" to send His son, I do think it is a powerful thought to consider that God's nature of love is as powerful, if not more powerful, than choice! That is a great thought isn't it? Because that means that if we REALLY love someone, we are going to sacrifice for them almost "instinctively" rather than merely because we "choose" to. Love can be a powerful thing, can't it?

Think of it in terms of salvation in Christ. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). For Jesus to die for us is a mighty strong demonstration of love. I really like the thought that love is more powerful than choice. I'm going to have to spend some more time thinking about that, but I believe it may be true.

The painful part of life is when someone "chooses" not to demonstrate love. Again, thinking in terms of "love doing godly things" that can explain why it hurts so much when someone doesn't "choose" to love us. When someone else injures or abuses us, we have to wonder and ask, "why isn't that person loving me?" That is what makes God's love so incredibly amazing. He is always willing to love without fault! But that reality is also what makes a human being's inability for "loving to do godly things" hurt us so badly when they fail us. We want the love God can give, but get the love (or lack of love) a human chooses to give. That is an incredible "lowering of the bar" from what God has to offer. I mean, find someone who can love you more and more like God loves you and you've really found something!

Birdsong

Most of my life I have enjoyed singing (though not always fond of the sound of my own voice) and it is rare there is not a song in my head and typically one can be found on my lips. And yet, in the past few years I have come to appreciate the voice of another member of the created community certainly more than my own.

In recent years, I have become more and more attuned to the countless sounds birds make. Birdsongs are fascinating artistic works if one will simply take the time to listen to them. (Hear a Nightingale here) Yesterday, while leaving our church campus following a great day of worship, Bible study, fellowship and food... I was stopped in my tracks by a wonderful sound of a particular bird. Once I spotted the beaked vocalist in the trees, I invited it to continue on in singing its songs... and the bird was quite kind in reply.

For several minutes I stood and listened to song after song (I was careful to quietly thank the performer at the end of each verse). I lost count at over a dozen different renderings or chirps, warps and chuckles. It was a most excellent concert and I likely would have applauded if I'd known it would not offend the bird and have it consider me trying to rid the area of its presence.

The event took me back to an account I once read of St. Francis of Assisi.

Many of the accounts surrounding the life of St Francis mention his particular appreciation for animals and creation. Perhaps the most famous account from his life expressing his love for nature is recounted in the 'Fioretti' (The Little Flowers), a collection of legends and folk-lore that sprang up after his death. It is told that one day while Francis was traveling with some companions they happened upon a place where birds filled the trees on either side of them. Francis told his companions to “wait for me while I go to preach to my sisters the birds.” The birds surrounded him, drawn by the power of his voice, and not one of them flew away. Francis spoke to them:

"My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you…you neither sow nor reap, and yet God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin or weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore… always seek to praise God."

While I didn't preach to this singular songbird, I did feel a sense of connectedness to all of Creation through the experience. After a great day with my Christian family, it seemed only appropriate to share some of our joy with the "birds of the field." They, in turn, were willing to share their gift with me.

I'm looking forward to another concert. In fact, I heard the chorus practicing today outside my office window and I know they will be well rehearsed for their next performance. As with my friend St. Francis, I will only ask that my birdsong friends always seek to praise God. For if they do, it will surely be a wonderful experience!

Repentence

One thing I don't enjoy doing is U-turns. On a motorcycle, no matter how good a rider may be, U-turns present problems. As adept as most motorcycles and their riders are in the turns, at such low speeds, even the highest performing bikes and riders are vulnerable to rider error or bike limitations (it has been said it takes more skill to ride slowly than it does to ride fast). Generally speaking, motorcycles are not inclined to turn such tight turns at such reduced speeds. Balance, precision, technique and concentration all come into play when riding slowly and navigating a 180 degree turn.

I also don't care for U-turns because generally speaking, it means I've "missed" something and am having to correct a navigational "error." Most of the time, a U-turn is a public admission of guilt for when I have made a mistake and must "turn around."

The biblical concept of repentance is basically a call for a "U-turn." It is a call for a 180 degree shift in behavior and/or thought and is critical to successfully navigating a journey with the Creator.

So often repentance in my life has been more of a response to my own shame than to true godly sorrow. I am puzzled to think of how many times I have "repented," often from the same sin over and over again and still fins myself doing it again . This makes me wonder how authentic and effectual my "repentance" ever was in the first place! Is repentance really repentance if we simply return to the same behaviors over and over again? Maybe, maybe not.

I wonder how often I have repented to merely salvage my own ego or to maintain some sense of a good reputation? Henry Drummond wrote about repentance, true repentance, as a matter of "looking God in the face," not merely looking at one's self in the mirror and dealing with the pain or injury of one's sin against self or one another.

For true repentance to take root in our life, we must be willing to walk before the throne of God with humble abandon and let the masterful work of His perfection expose the crude indecency of our sin. Only He can truly expose who I really am. Only He has the power to renovate my interiors so that my final exteriors will begin to ultimately bear His glory and praise.

Left to my own assessment, I'll surely try to justify my choices one way or another.

By God's grace and mercy, we can have the courage to face ourselves as only God sees us. He knows our hearts, He sees everything as it is and still chooses to love in spite of what He sees. He is the One, whom I may have just run past, that calls me back to a better course of direction and ultimately a better final destination.

For the sake of His love and mercy, I'm learning to gladly make a U-turn, even if it requires slowing down and exercising more caution than usual.