Now regarding your question about the young women who are not yet married. I do not have a command from the Lord for them. But the Lord in his mercy has given me wisdom that can be trusted, and I will share it with you. Because of the present crisis, I think it is best to remain as you are. If you have a wife, do not seek to end the marriage. If you do not have a wife, do not seek to get married. But if you do get married, it is not a sin. And if a young woman gets married, it is not a sin. However, those who get married at this time will have troubles, and I am trying to spare you those problems.
-1 Corinthians 7
Paul says I do not have a command from the Lord for this issue.
But at the end of this section he says he is trying to spare the readers "those problems".
I believe this is why Paul did not receive a command from the Lord because God is never for dodging pain and problems. God wants us to be free come what may.
This past Monday Bea showed up to the pantry and I realized a lot of things.
First this time when she walked in I felt completely different from when she arrived on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving I felt a pit in my gut. I felt nervous to talk to her. I felt scared and afraid of what the outcome would be.
This time my heart leap like John in the womb when she came through the door. I wasn't worried or afraid of pain she would or could cause me but rather I was happy to see her.
I have always wandered what love is.
If I looked to my parents for an example of love I would think it is two humans cohabiting.
If I looked to media, movies, television, books, I would think love is about finding someone who makes me happy.
If I followed my own feelings I would think love is about running from loneliness.
All of these things are byproducts of love but are still missing the mark.
Monday night I felt something else.
Something I have only learned about from reading in the bible and experiencing from God.
The reason Paul doesn't have guidance from the Holy Spirit on marriage is because Paul is suggesting to run from fear and pain. That is why he calls it "wisdom that can be trusted" following Paul's advice will keep me safe and out of troubles but it won't help me have life to the fullest.
What they call love is a risk.
I know I always say it because I believe it is an absolute truth.
Standing there looking into Bea's gorgeous big brown eyes listening to her dream about Vegas, and San Francisco, and Jamaica, I started to see Bea not as someone who can cure loneliness or someone who can make me happy but rather the woman God has made her to be.
Monday before the pantry as I lay on the floor recovering from a stomach bug I finally watched the movie "Into the Wild" as I was watching it I realized that Chris had to go on his 'Great Alaskan Adventure' even though he had encountered all of these people who loved him.
His parents who's love he was blinded to.
The rubber tramp couple who's love he was blinded to.
The farmer who's love he was blinded to.
The young hippie girl
and finally the old man who asked to adopt him.
Chris had to do what was in him. He had to chase what was burning inside him and he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had done what the heart God placed inside of him was beating for.
as I quoted last week:
Christianity's about effort - about expending blood, sweat and tears to be what you've been designed by God to be and do what you've been designed by God to do. That's certainly not incompatible with personal fulfilment and lasting happiness - quite the reverse.
-Absolute Truths
our calling isn't always one of a standard biblical call. It is whatever God has placed in our hearts. Sometimes that's art, sometimes it's exploring, sometimes its simply accounting. Whatever it is it is the one thing that we have no problem expending blood, sweat and tears over in order to accomplish. That is the key to personal fulfilment and lasting happiness, that is the key to God's purpose planted in our hearts.
Chris had to go. But the wisdom Chris learned while slowly starving to death in the magic bus is what I find most interesting and shockingly overlooked in the film and in his life. As Chris was dying he wrote down
Happiness only real when shared
-Chris McCandless
The only way for God to cure Chris' blindness was to let Chris seek truth and follow his heart. There and only there can God heal us and show us His truth.
As I thought about Chris McCandless and I listened to Bea dream her dreams I realized the same thing all of those people along the journey of Chris' life realized. They loved him and they didn't want him to leave them but in the end they let him go BECAUSE they loved him. Because they knew he had to do what was in his heart. He had to.
That's what love is.
Love isn't letting go to see if they will come back.
Love isn't fighting, and chasing, and pursuing, although there are seasons for such things.
Love is about the being who God created. It's about seeing that creation exactly as God crafted her in her purest unbiased form.
Love is being for her.
not so that she can cure my loneliness
not so that she will come back to me
not so that I get what I want
but simply because she is who she is.
Because she is beautifully and wonderfully made.
Because God first loved me.
Love is an agonizing dangerous path with fear lurking at every step of the way but it is so worth the price that Your love says do it any way.
If I told Bea to stay and she did and we dated I wouldn't be dating the woman my love is for. I'd be dating a caged bird. The woman I care for is the woman who desires to go to Vegas and San Fran and God knows where else.
To see past myself and to see her whole true self in spite of my selfish fears and desires that is love.
To be for her.
Love doesn't mean it will always end in marriage. Love has any paths and takes many shapes.
Love sometimes ends in marriage but it isn't limited or constricted to it.
letting go and forgiveness have a lot in common.
Jesus tells us to forgive 70 x 7 times.
I think the same is true for letting go.
To let go is to wake up every morning release the person to God only to find your heart may be chained to it again the next morning.
But there is hope in God.
These lives are filled with resurrections.
Teach me how to trust you Jesus. Teach me how to love not the ways they do in movies or books but Your way.
free her heart. from fear. May she be free to go where ever her heart calls out of freedom. Not running from anything and equally as important not running to anything but that in the freedom of her heart she may also find peace in that big attractive amazing heart of hers.
heal Bea. From pain in a broken family. from unhealthy past relationships. from the need to always run. from the fear of growing up, to become the woman You have sprouted within her.
She will become in time become.
heal me
Eddie Vedder - Society
-1 Corinthians 7
Paul says I do not have a command from the Lord for this issue.
But at the end of this section he says he is trying to spare the readers "those problems".
I believe this is why Paul did not receive a command from the Lord because God is never for dodging pain and problems. God wants us to be free come what may.
This past Monday Bea showed up to the pantry and I realized a lot of things.
First this time when she walked in I felt completely different from when she arrived on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving I felt a pit in my gut. I felt nervous to talk to her. I felt scared and afraid of what the outcome would be.
This time my heart leap like John in the womb when she came through the door. I wasn't worried or afraid of pain she would or could cause me but rather I was happy to see her.
I have always wandered what love is.
If I looked to my parents for an example of love I would think it is two humans cohabiting.
If I looked to media, movies, television, books, I would think love is about finding someone who makes me happy.
If I followed my own feelings I would think love is about running from loneliness.
All of these things are byproducts of love but are still missing the mark.
Monday night I felt something else.
Something I have only learned about from reading in the bible and experiencing from God.
The reason Paul doesn't have guidance from the Holy Spirit on marriage is because Paul is suggesting to run from fear and pain. That is why he calls it "wisdom that can be trusted" following Paul's advice will keep me safe and out of troubles but it won't help me have life to the fullest.
What they call love is a risk.
I know I always say it because I believe it is an absolute truth.
Standing there looking into Bea's gorgeous big brown eyes listening to her dream about Vegas, and San Francisco, and Jamaica, I started to see Bea not as someone who can cure loneliness or someone who can make me happy but rather the woman God has made her to be.
Monday before the pantry as I lay on the floor recovering from a stomach bug I finally watched the movie "Into the Wild" as I was watching it I realized that Chris had to go on his 'Great Alaskan Adventure' even though he had encountered all of these people who loved him.
His parents who's love he was blinded to.
The rubber tramp couple who's love he was blinded to.
The farmer who's love he was blinded to.
The young hippie girl
and finally the old man who asked to adopt him.
Chris had to do what was in him. He had to chase what was burning inside him and he wasn't going to be satisfied until he had done what the heart God placed inside of him was beating for.
as I quoted last week:
Christianity's about effort - about expending blood, sweat and tears to be what you've been designed by God to be and do what you've been designed by God to do. That's certainly not incompatible with personal fulfilment and lasting happiness - quite the reverse.
-Absolute Truths
our calling isn't always one of a standard biblical call. It is whatever God has placed in our hearts. Sometimes that's art, sometimes it's exploring, sometimes its simply accounting. Whatever it is it is the one thing that we have no problem expending blood, sweat and tears over in order to accomplish. That is the key to personal fulfilment and lasting happiness, that is the key to God's purpose planted in our hearts.
Chris had to go. But the wisdom Chris learned while slowly starving to death in the magic bus is what I find most interesting and shockingly overlooked in the film and in his life. As Chris was dying he wrote down
Happiness only real when shared
-Chris McCandless
The only way for God to cure Chris' blindness was to let Chris seek truth and follow his heart. There and only there can God heal us and show us His truth.
As I thought about Chris McCandless and I listened to Bea dream her dreams I realized the same thing all of those people along the journey of Chris' life realized. They loved him and they didn't want him to leave them but in the end they let him go BECAUSE they loved him. Because they knew he had to do what was in his heart. He had to.
That's what love is.
Love isn't letting go to see if they will come back.
Love isn't fighting, and chasing, and pursuing, although there are seasons for such things.
Love is about the being who God created. It's about seeing that creation exactly as God crafted her in her purest unbiased form.
Love is being for her.
not so that she can cure my loneliness
not so that she will come back to me
not so that I get what I want
but simply because she is who she is.
Because she is beautifully and wonderfully made.
Because God first loved me.
Love is an agonizing dangerous path with fear lurking at every step of the way but it is so worth the price that Your love says do it any way.
If I told Bea to stay and she did and we dated I wouldn't be dating the woman my love is for. I'd be dating a caged bird. The woman I care for is the woman who desires to go to Vegas and San Fran and God knows where else.
To see past myself and to see her whole true self in spite of my selfish fears and desires that is love.
To be for her.
Love doesn't mean it will always end in marriage. Love has any paths and takes many shapes.
Love sometimes ends in marriage but it isn't limited or constricted to it.
letting go and forgiveness have a lot in common.
Jesus tells us to forgive 70 x 7 times.
I think the same is true for letting go.
To let go is to wake up every morning release the person to God only to find your heart may be chained to it again the next morning.
But there is hope in God.
These lives are filled with resurrections.
Teach me how to trust you Jesus. Teach me how to love not the ways they do in movies or books but Your way.
free her heart. from fear. May she be free to go where ever her heart calls out of freedom. Not running from anything and equally as important not running to anything but that in the freedom of her heart she may also find peace in that big attractive amazing heart of hers.
heal Bea. From pain in a broken family. from unhealthy past relationships. from the need to always run. from the fear of growing up, to become the woman You have sprouted within her.
She will become in time become.
heal me
Eddie Vedder - Society