I just had some musings today. Usually when I write a blog it is because something has been weighing heavily on my mind and I need to splurge! Today, this blog is not like that. I had a few random thoughts and thought why not blog them. So I don't know how this post is going to end up! Scary!
My series on perfomance and worship (if you can call it that since there have only been two previous posts and they happen, like, once every 6 months or something) has created a fair bit of discussion in the past and so I recognise that its not necessarily that simple an issue. In the past, my thoughts have centred mostly around worship through music. Today they are about love. Loving people, I know, is a subject that is so fundamental and which a lot of people feel very strongly about, and I don't intend to squash its importance, or to suggest that I know anything about it really. I am very weak in this area generally, and I need to develop my love for others. In fact, it is because of this that I write this blog. I realise my weakness, and want to love other people more than I do, but the thought of that has sparked questions in my mind (as per usual).
How can we ensure that loving others becomes an act of worship, not a perfomance? We are always being reminded in church (rightly so) of the need to love each other. When this doesn't come naturally, what is the best thing to do? If you choose to try hard to love people, practically speaking, do you not run the risk of putting on a performance. Making it look like you love other people when you really don't?
I was on facebook today nd noticed that I had 11 notifications I hadn't checked. Most of them are rubbish I don't need to know, but today I had a notification telling me I had sent two people some 'Luv'. In all honesty, I don't recall doing that, and without meaning to be cruel, if I had intended to, there would have been others I would have sent it to fisrt (except for one of the people, who though I don't speak to that much actually is a really nice guy and I haven't spoken to for ages and it reminded me of him and I thought, 'yeah, I do want to send him some Luv; to all those out there who have tried in the past to matchmake me - I do not mean this in a romantic way - stop getting your hopes up!). So apart from being concerned that facebook was sending out 'Luv' on my behalf, it made me think - when I send out 'Love' as a Christian, mostly I should be sending it out without realising it - shouldn't I? Showing people I love them by my actions and my way of living, without first making a conscious choice to, surely shows them that the love is real.
Rob Bell once made a comment on one of his Nooma DVD's - 'Sunday' (which by the way, whoever's it is, I still have - make me give it back!) which was that if a husband bought his wife some flowers, she would be so happy and so chuffed that he had thought of her. If he then turned round and said, 'well, it was my duty', it kind of takes the romance out of it. She didn't want his duty, she probably didn't even care that much about the flowers, what she wanted was his heart.
So when loving others doesn't come naturally, what do you do. How do you love them without it becoming a duty. How do you turn it into worship and not performance. I have thought about this a little, and the best answer I have come up with so far is that the more time we spend with God, reading the Bible, praying, and falling in love with Him personally, the more we are likely to naturally love other people, thereby avoiding this whole issue. But what about in the meantime. Is there a difference between 'choice' and 'performance' as in choosing to love someone as opposed to not loving them but making it look like you do. Can you tell your heart to do something? I know you can change your mind, can you change your heart?
2 comments:
Another paradoxical blog - analysing love!How do you analyse a feeling, especially one like Love, that can be in turns tender and fluffy,then extreme and powerful.There's also the question of when love becomes something else that can be so easliy confused for love - infatuation, lust etc.
Then there is the fundamental problem with the actual word itself - it can be a verb or a noun... a bit like Blog!!
As someone who has experienced the love of others and responded in some way or another ( as everyone has who isn't living in a box)I would say that love is more of a motivation than a 'thing'.
I have been teaching some kids a song called 'This is Love' and you might think - Ah hah! at last the answer, this song will tell me what love is, but no. It describes the love of God as 'wider than the Ocean, deeper that the sea, higher than the mountains, amazing love for me'
I'm honestly none the wiser as to what love is nor am I aware of the times I give it away. As a Christian,love encourages me to be the person I think God wants me to be, both in the things I do, say, etc , but also ultimately because the only reason I know Jesus is because of Love.
Love like you worship - in response to an amazing Saviour and Creator God. Show love in the same way.
Here endeth Liz's lesson!
I think 'love' the feeling comes naturally, and like you said, becomes more natural the more and more we immerse ourselves in God. However, we cant wait until we are Christ like to act in loving ways- and I think thats the difference. I think maybe your actions to start off as acting. To act as though you love is learned behaviour. I think you can train yourself to be positive, to say kind things, to make an effort to include people, to not gossip and moan. These things which will make the world view you as a 'loving person' take time and effort. And although you dont want to fake emotion for someone or something, I think making an effort to be Christlike can pay off. I hope that makes sense!
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