Would you be mine?

This month I have been contemplating love and joy. I suppose this is natural since this month is February, and right in the middle of it we celebrate Valentine's day. I spoke with my sister on the weekend following the holiday, and I was so blessed! The conversation brought me so much joy! I realized that out of my string of contacts, she is one that cannot be substituted. During the time she was in Kyrgyztan, there remained a void in me that only she could fill. I love my sister, you know? As the week continued I received cards, e-mails and other things from those I love, and who love me that also brought me joy. I started thinking about how much joy I get from those people that I love, and that also love me. I was forming this nice little theory in my head about love, relationships and joy, when I read a passage that rocked my thinking. It took me to a whole new level, so I thought I'd post it for everyone to read.

"We waste our lives when we do not pray and think and dream and plan and work toward magnifying God in all spheres of life. God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. . . For many people this is not an act of love. They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for His glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distrotion of love. . . This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. . . We were made to see and savor God-and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors. "

" If you don't point people to God for everlasting joy, you don't love"

These quotes are from don't waste your life by John Piper

I am still chewing on this new concept of love. How finding true joy in glorifying God is the way of experiencing, and showing true love. I'm not sure how this fits into my earlier thoughts about relationships.

Comments

Ash said…
sweet I feel honored to be in your blog, I seriously was blessed by our convo too I can't wait to see you though and hug you and kiss you!:)
Well GOd is in people and by loving people and relationships and finding joy in them your loving God, ya know? I've heard this a lot with YWAM and you touched on it, love is seeking the highest good for another. It's easy when you really like and find joy in that person but what about the people who don't bring you joy? Were still called to love them but it's harder. I find it very easy to love you cuz you bring me joy a lot of our relationships do but we still must love in the relationships that don't bring much joy cuz maybe you don't feel joy but your bringing them joy and blessing God! lOve is not based on feelings but is a choice and can be easy and hard. i love you a lot!!!!!!!!!That's easy!! You bring me much JOY!!! Those are just my crazy thoughts, sorry so long!! :)
February 23, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Anonymous said…
piper is right about his or should i say god's concept of love. most everyone is taught that love is nothing more than a nice fuzzy feeling that you get when you someone you think is cute. i think love has been boiled down to nothing but feeling and that's sad because feelings tend to come and go. so what do people with that mindset think about gods love? that it comes and goes. gods true love for us is to glorify him because in all honesty that really is the best thing for us isn't it? life makes the most sense when we finally get that through our heads. That is a powerful passage. love is so much bigger than we think because god is love. and we all know god is alot bigger than anything we can really understand and i think love is similar. to know love is to know god.
February 23, 2008 at 10:12 PM
Anonymous said…
I love you, so much!!! You are too easy to love also, so I'm selfish in my love. You give so much in return. That's how God's love is too. When we realize we're here to glorify God, we experience the love of God that is greater than any earthly reward. In our Beth Moore Bible study, I was blown away by the lesson on the manna in the desert. God wanted the Israelites to depend on Him daily and first thing in the morning receive their daily bread from him. But even if they gathered too much or too little He made sure everyone had just the amount they needed. In the New Testament, He taught us to pray, Give us this day our daily bread, and in Ps 5:3 and also in Proverbs somewhere he talks about coming to Him in the morning, then in Lamentations 3:25, The Lord is our portion. He is our daily bread. How wonderful for the opportunity to commune with our Awesome Heavenly Father first thing in the morning and receive Him - our strength, our bread, our daily portion to live that day. And today is the only day we have to worry about, because His mercies are new every morning and He going to do it all over again the next day, if there is one here on earth. The Lord is my portion today, and I don't want to miss my daily bread first thing this morning - what a gift! Mom
February 27, 2008 at 5:58 PM
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