He said, I love you. What does he mean? - In Almighty's Grand Scheme, nothing, but if you're planning to keep your sanity grab your chocolate and run baby. Run.
Don't allow your reality to be shaped and shadowed by someone else's falsity. If you love someone, say, I love you. Speak it. Then be it.
End of sermon. But stick around for a few moments of rich discovery and a reality check on love. Oh, did you know in the bible there are deep love connections of every stripe and combination? Love is essential.
So what is love? What is its mystery? Can we exist without it? Can we survive within it? What if I tell you the bible is a love story? A love story. Full stop. Punto final! Would you relax or would your brain begin to boil? It is. Relax. Now smile.
Love. Why are so many of us willing to risk all for it? Why does it drive us so crazy? Why is it so full of pain? So full of heartbreak? So full of longing? Why do we crave it so deeply?
OBSERVATION DECK: Here is a fact. Most of us live in a three-dimensional world. Love is a four-dimensional experience. In mathematical terms, if you experience life as in a cube (i.e. breadth, depth and length), love is a tesseract experience - constituted of four vibrant cubic dimensions.
Cut a MRI Slice of this 4-dimensional experience. Take a close-up snapshot of one of these dimensions - Romantic Love. Let's see what we find.
In 1896, a Kwakiutl Indian expressed romantic love to a missionary this way:
Fire runs through my body with the pain of loving you
Pain runs through my body with the fires of my love for you.
Pain, like a boil, about to burst with my love for you.
Consumed by fire with my love for you
I remember what you said to me.
I am thinking of your love for me.
I am torn by your love for me.
Pain and more pain
Where are you going with my love?
I'm told you would go from here.
I'm told you would leave me here.
My body is numb with grief.
Remember what I said my love.
Goodbye, my love. Goodbye.
Sir Bernard Shaw assessed our craving for love this way:
"Love consists of overestimating the differences of one woman over another."
Romantic movies try desperately to dramatize love's essence. How about:
"If you are a bird I am a bird."
Anthropologist Helen Fisher took a look at The Brain In Love. Let's look.
Ah! The brain locks into love. The heart locks into love. The body locks into love. Souls are mated. Stars light heaven like the sparks of Fourth of July. Love energizes. Love empowers. Love enlightens. Awesome. How come then love can go so horribly wrong? In other words, why do the majority of lovers get dumped?
Is it sheer coincidence that we use the same symbol - fire - for romance, passion and hell? I don't know - maybe. Perhaps love isn't easy but very essential. Perhaps love is quite simple. Regardless, there are a cornucopia of reasons why it all goes to hell in a hand basket. Let's see if we can pick three prominent culprits from the love-killing line-up and deduce if any is rehabilitable and which, if any, deserves to be banished for life. (Ref: Rasa No. 4)
Culprit #1: The Cage Builder
Erected by lovers holding the 'God Card'
This culprit has a scripture verse for everything under the sun - many plucked right out of context, far from relevance, and always perfect for checkmate. It's the god-said-it so you-better-do-it card holder - verses like bullets. With every firing that shell becomes a link in the chain that becomes the mesh that becomes the cage - the lovebird cage. Click. Suffocation. Starvation. Death.
The Fix - Fix yourself: Let Go and Let God.
Culprit #2: The Stage Maker
Perpetrated by lovers suffering from the 'SGTBIC' syndrome
A love relationship transitions into a power arrangement.
Weak vs Strong! Few are strong enough to endure this strain.
The 'Somebody's Got To Be In Charge' dilemma: perfect for gifted Long-Sufferers.
The Fix - Fix yourself: Choose You This Day whom You Will Serve.
Culprit #3: The Rage Bearer
Displayed by lovers frought with fear
J E A L O U S Y
If romantic love is a fire, some jealousies are like gasoline, some jealousies are like cold water, some jealousies are like hearths of brass. Go figure.
Indeed it is said The Lord Thy God Is A Jealous God. And so the boss-cat don't have to 'splain it, Beware! Rip 'The Lord Thy God' out of context and sprinkle loosely wherever; it will blow you up. If you uproot this plant from the old garden and plant it in the new garden, you'll spread its infection, you'll contaminate the new garden with old ailments. Then you'll have to start all over again. And that's a lot of work.
The Fix - Fix yourself!! Quickly!!!
================================ This is but a snapshot. Love is so much more. ================================
Amongst many gems one may ferret from this snap view, two standout. 1. Love thrives,shining brightly, in fields of honesty, mutuality and openness. 2. All that glitters is not gold. Other experiences (infatuation, comfort, intimacy, desire) can sometimes be confused with or parlayed for love.
Let's take a quick look at GREAT MEN & WOMEN with Dried-Up Nipples It is well established that great women and men do not accomplish greatness on their own. Though greatness is within them they are accompanied to their accomplishments. David could not become David without Jonathan. Ruth could not become Ruth without Naomi. Jesus gathered twelve. But not all are Jonathans. Not all are Naomies. Many are babies in need of milk in order to grow.
REALITY CHECK: You might be asking what has great leadership got to do with love? Everything! You might also be asking why so many promising leaders fall flat, caught stealing for love. This we know. Love is essential.
DISCOVERY: Achievement of greatness is enabled by the power of love. Not anyone can give this class of love. It's a great love. Not everyone can absorb this depth of love. Great inspirational leaders have benefitted enormously from it. No king is king alone. There is someone behind the throne. A confidant! Aspirational Leaders need also to be careful with whom they share their dreams, for there is a lot more to love than carousing around the fire. They need also to get up and go. Let's listen.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorifyyour Father which is in heaven. ” ~ Jesus
Who is behind your throne? A shiner or a dimmer? Who are you in love with? Is that person for you? Or just for what you are for? Is that person for you? Or just against what you are against. Who loves you? Greatness is inpired by great love. Who is with you? Will that person weep when you weep and rejoice when you rejoice? Will that person be there in your hour of need? Jesus chose TWELVE. They followed him, but they were not all with him. Some were there for what he was for. Some were there because he was against what they were against. But in his hour of need? Oh God! Who are you in love with? Does that person make you want to be a better person? Yes! Then you have a good start.
In The Great Adventure, you might recall John - the disciple whom Jesus loved. The two were bonded in the womb. John, the man with a rugged flair for fashion, an effective communicator, an inspirational leader, was a man who stood out, a man whose very name means God is gracious. "Among them that are born of women there has not arisen a greater than John." Did you know John was born of a barren woman? Mhm. His mother's name is Elizabeth. This man was a veritable walking sermon!
Roll tape!
John Sees Jesus Coming. Behold!
John, you are going to be my baptizer? -- Huh? Master Teacher, You the Messiah, you mean to say you are going to be my baptizer? -- John, I know who you are and I said what I mean. Will you be my baptizer? -- Absolutely.
And so John baptized Jesus
And a dove landed.
Jesus picked his confidant.
Woohoo!
Don't allow your reality to be shaped and shadowed by someone else's realiity. When people show you who they are believe them.
"Do not let yourself to be surrounded by people who will peck you to death like a duck. (Otherwise) each time they enter into your space they will take a little piece of your soul." ~ Maya Angelou
"When you see crazy coming, cross the street." ~ Iyanla Vanzant
OUR CHALLENGE IS TO UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER
. . .
"And now these three abide: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. " ~ Paul
"Don't Fear It. Say It. I Love You." This is your life; only YOU can live it.
L O V E
is patient, is kind, is not jealous
is unconditional
endures
Stop Worrying About Who God Took
Be Sure To Enjoy Who God Sent God Is Omniscient
TODAY IS A NEW DAY
Because You Are Loved
In a certain prominent letter is written this word:
Though I speak
in the language of men and angels, if I have no love
I am as a gong of brass
or a tinkling cymbal. And
Though I have the gift
of prophecies
and understand all mysteries,
and all knowledge, and
Though I have all faith
so that I can move mountains if I have no love,
I am nothing. And
ThoughI give
all my goods to the poor
and my body to be burned if I have no love
it profits me nothing.
Nada! Zilch. Zippo. Zero. A providential waste. Now I don't know about you, but at my angle of view, love and joy are in bed together - naked - pleasuring each other everywhich way from Sunday - blissfully erotic. Love is amazing! Joy is ecstatic! But why would you take my word for it or dare to ask why is love unconditional when you can be your own voyeur and experience with your own eyes and ears and bubbling heartbeat what else the letter says about love . . . then thinkon these things; lest you also become a statistic.
Seriously! Can't we all just get along? The answer is NO! Because there exists amongst us unconscionable beings. Their love is dead. Their heart is cold, kept artificially warm by greed and envy and pumped full of evil. They don't look like alien creatures. They look like us. They breathe and breed like us. They will infect you. They will demonize you. They cannot be appeased. Their entire thrust is to subordinate you to their cause. Your joy is easy and your challenge is clear - to be innoculated against their virus; to be healed of their infection. YES, we can get along, but not with those who never will. Be encouraged, though. They are not near as necessary to you as you might be inclined to imagine; they are just damned good at projecting their evil. They are weak; it's their evil that is vicious. But there is good news. SMILE.
Yes. That would be heaven! And you don't have to wait. There exists a love unmatched amongst us - a joy unspeakable and full of glory. Here is the secret: share your love; don't go fishing for theirs; that's their business. SMILE.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy.' But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you." ~ Jesus
In a village in South America, one of my grandmother's friends, Ms Mary, had a son and two daughters. Her daughters names were Faith and Hope. All three of her children were married and each had two or three children at the time. They all lived in the village. The two daughters lived close together not far from where we lived. Many evenings Ms Mary would come by to ask her daughters the same question, calling out to them at the window or the door: "Are all the children in?" Then she would leave satisfied.
It caught my attention that she would do this, so every time I saw her, the question would echo in my mind, "Are all the children in?" And I would smile. I didn't know why.
There was, too, a man who was not half as smart as he imagined himself and even less as funny, but he thought he was a hoot. Cock-brained, is the way Ms Mary described him.
Everytime he passed by he had some snide remark to toss someone's way. This day he shouted out to Ms. Mary, in reference to her having two daughters, Faith and Hope. "The old man left you one short," he shouted out to Ms Mary, "the most precious of all. Love." Then he began to laugh as he rode on as usual, but Ms. Mary decided to answer him. "I see your old man left you one hole too many in place of your brain." Then she turned to me and pointed to her grandchildren. "Love," she said. "That's who they are. He's too dumb to notice."
Since then I've always wanted to call up to every window and ask this question - here it is: ARE ALL THE CHILDREN IN? Smile.
FAITH REPLACES DOUBT
I cherish the moments
Every Moment Is Precious
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