Real Love

Let's be real - social media is getting pretty unbearable. I've unfollowed pretty much all of my Facebook friends (sorry, folks) because my newsfeed was making me despondent and anxious.  

(N.B. I know this is a little bit like a small child sticking their fingers in their ears and saying, "la-la-la I can't hear you!" But what can I say? I've got a terribly sensitive little heart and have cried myself to sleep too frequently this month)

People are divided, and sad, and angry, and clamouring to be heard. Both sides of the same-sex marriage debate are loudly articulating a definition of love, but so frequently neither side is speaking with love to the priceless, irreplaceable, beloved child of God with whom they're debating. 

Plebiscite aside, the world is a noisy place. Every morning walking to uni, I pass through a nightmarish sequence of traffic jams, advertising, construction dust, and busy people trying to keep up with a busy, noisy world. The news moves quickly - if I want to keep pace academically, I should too. Even as a missionary, I'm constantly looking for ways to keep pace with the ever-changing signs of the times, grow ministries that are 'contagious', proclaim in a way that gets heard above the rabble. 

Yesterday, in desperation, I looked up to heaven and whispered, "I don't want to add to the noise."

I don't want to fight with a world already torn apart by its insecurities and bitterness. I don't want to shout my point of view into a room already drowning in cacophony. I don't want to compete to be heard.

I want to listen.

I want to love. 

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings, and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understanding; I may have faith to move mountains, but if I have no love, I am nothing.

I may give away everything I have and even give up my body to be burned - but if I have no love, this does me no good.

Our world has enough noisy gongs and clanging bells. God knows that I'm one of them. I preach, and show off my knowledge and faith, and give away another pile of clothes to show that I'm detached from material things, and learn to speak eloquently, and frame my perspective in the most persuasive way possible.

But if I do any of these things without love, I am nothing. 

I realised recently how often in the context of a group prayer, I'll launch into verbal prayer in the same breath as making the sign of the cross. "In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit Lord God we thank you for...." 

It's challenging to pause. It's challenging to breathe deeply for a minute and listen to the rhythm of the Holy Spirit in your own heartbeat. It's challenging to let God speak first. 

In my narcissism, I'm far more concerned with what I have to say to God than what He has to say to me. And that then projects itself into my conversations with other people: I don't listen.

And I think that until I learn to listen, I will be incapable of true love.

The thing is, I - weak, confused, hypocritical little human that I am - don't really know what love should look like or feel like, or whose love is right or wrong, or how best to make love present and valued in this world.

Ultimately, I only know one thing: God is Love.

He is patient. He is kind. He is not jealous or conceited or proud. He is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable. He doesn't keep a record of wrongs. He isn't happy about evil - He rejoices in truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. and His love is eternal. 

Until I learn to listen to Him - truly listen - I'm not going to become Love for this world. 

I'll just keep adding to the noise.

"Jesus took him aside, away from the crowd, so they could be alone," the Gospels tell us about a man who was deaf and mute (Mark 7:33). Only away from the crowd, away from the noise, in the silence and beauty of a personal relationship with Jesus could the man be healed. 

LISTEN and SILENT are anagrams. I often find that in the silence, God rearranges me too. 

Be Still.

Know that He is God.

God is Love.

~~~

Beloved friend who is reading this blog post, 

I don't know who you are or where you stand in life. I don't know your political inclinations are or what you'll be voting in the plebiscite. Frankly, I don't care. I love you. I want to listen to you.

The God whom I know, love, and worship is bigger than the noise we're confronting. He's bigger than our divisions and incapacity to interact with love. 

And in the silence, He extends to you the invitation to be transformed into the living image of His love. 

With love,

Kate

AMDG