Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy.
Warren Wiersbe, On Being a Leader for God
My sister-in-law got married this past weekend and I’d be remiss not to first give her a more public congratulations and prayers for a wonderful new life. Her husband’s a great dude and getting to meet his family was a treat. Very happy for the both of them, and for my in-laws in general to have something so great to celebrate. Love you guys, and don’t worry, I remember the vows we all made as well. You can’t escape us, muahaha.
Being there, though, brought me back to a topic I’d thought to write a while ago. Something that stemmed from another wedding that really sidelined me and felt like something of a microcosm of the world at large. Not sure why it took me so long to get to writing about it, but I guess some things just boost off of others.
The ceremony in question was standard – something we’d all recognize as an American wedding. Everything you’d expect. The presider was giving his blessing and made what I expect most people would see as an innocuous statement: “God is love. And love is God.”
Those last three words caught me. It seemed, oddly, to encapsulate something I think we here in the West are struggling with – or, at least, something we seem to keep butting heads with one another about.
We seem to have developed a worship of the idea of love. That there is nothing more important. And, if we had the same concept of love, I’d be inclined to agree. But I think that, like a lot of things these days, we use the same words without having the same definitions. Love to me is something very specific. Something that draws one closer to the life they were intended to live, with an eye toward the Creator. It’s oriented toward God, always, as He is, in fact love. To love is to know God, after all. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before.
Now, some of you reading this might think that’s the stupidest definition of love you’ve ever heard. Love is a devotion to someone, perhaps. One that lasts until death. Or maybe it’s putting others before yourself. Or… I don’t know, pick something. Come up with your own if none of those fit the bill.
I don’t claim to know what the presider had in his heart when he said that, though, and that’s the point. With such varied definitions, love cannot be God. God is not a transitive property. We shouldn’t worship devotion or self-sacrifice. Human compulsions to human things are prone to corruption, always. It’s our nature. Muddying the waters is fraught with disaster.
Anyway, I’ll keep this one short. I could soapbox on this for a while, but I’d much rather treat this piece as a conversation starter. Not that I have much of an audience for that, but hey, who knows. What say you?
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Side note, I’m writing this in the airport in Portland, Maine while waiting for the rest of my family to get in. If it’s possible, this is even more off-the-cuff than normal. I pre-loaded the images a couple of days ago, am putting this together in Word as I have no internet access, and will be transferring it over and giving it the formatting pass once we end up in the hotel tonight or maybe early morning tomorrow. I meant what I said. An article (and LEGO) a week or bust.
And about the LEGO – this week was a mess. It was short, there was a late work night, a 4am flight, and a whole mess of planning and house things to be done for the family before I was gone. I tried – stupidly, I might add – to get a bigger one done. Almost. Maybe I can finish that next week (which is still a short one since I don’t get back into town til midday Monday). Either way, here’s a weird set. These are replicas from the LEGO House.
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