Love Is A Verb

I have been enjoying another series of the Gilmore Girls this evening. 

 

At one point, Lorelai and her daughter (who is at University), have been communicating via email.  Lorelai complains that Rory has been writing really brief emails and hasn't been including enough information:

 

She says,

"You're not even using verbs.  That's not a relationship.  Relationships need verbs."

 

Relationships need verbs.

 

As Newton Faulkner sang,

 

         "Love, love is a verb

         Love is a doing word."

 

 

Love should be something active.  Love is more than just words. 

 

It is easy to tell someone you love them, so much harder to show them.  Loving someone in actions takes effort.  It requires time and energy and compromise.  It is so much easier to simply say you love someone.

 

But God didn't just say He loved us.  He showed us His love.  He sent His Son to die for us to show us His love.  The cross is a display of His powerful, passionate love.

 

John urges this in his first letter:

"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

 

[1 John 3:18 NIV]

 

It's easy to say you love someone.  But love is a verb.

 

It Will All Be Alright In The End

I have learnt not to trust cooking programmes. 

 

They do not present a realistic view of what a kitchen really looks like when one is in the middle of cooking.  Instead, they are air-brushed and clinically clean - not an accurate reflection of real life in the kitchen.

 

Whenever I am cooking a big meal, my kitchen looks an absolute mess during the process.  When I am halfway through, there are pots and pans stacked by the sink, soaking to get them clean again.  Every utensil I own is scattered somewhere about the kitchen.  There will be food out on every available surface and it will all look a complete tip.

 

However, by the time it comes to serve everything, I will have tidied away the left-over ingredients, washed up the stack of dishes and cleaned every surface so that my kitchen once again appears presentable.

 

When I'm in the middle of cooking, I never worry about the mess around me.  I know that it will be alright in the end.

 

As Paolo Coelho said, "It will be alright in the end.  If it's not alright, it's not the end."

 

However, I rarely apply this principle to the rest of my life. 

 

I panic if I am in the middle of sorting something out, or working on something and processing or creating something, and it looks messy.  If things don't appear to be in control, I begin to feel uneasy and doubt that everything will be alright in the end.  I lack the long-term vision that seems to come so easily when I am cooking.  Instead, I get caught up in the mess that surrounds me.

 

But God promises that everything will be alright in the end.  John writes in his revelation of heaven,

“Look, God’s home is now among his people!  He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.  All these things are gone forever.”

 

[Revelation 21:3-4 NLT]

 

No matter what life might look like now, no matter how often I find myself in the middle of the mess, I know that it will all be alright in the end.  Because of Him.

 

 

 

Christmas Lights

I love the run-up to Christmas (not the run-up that starts in September, but the one that starts at the proper time, at the beginning of December).  I love the frosty, icy mornings, mulled wine, mince pies, starting to hear Christmas Carols and songs on the radio or when you're out shopping.

 

And I love seeing the Christmas lights that people put up, both in their homes and in towns and cities.

 

Turning on the lights has become a big event in recent years: often, a local celebrity will be invited to turn them on, and people will queue - sometimes for hours beforehand - to see the lights going on.

 

I find this quite amusing - at no other point in life is turning lights on a big deal.  I'm sure we all turn lights on at regular intervals throughout the day without ever noticing or caring.  We certainly manage the task by ourselves and without a crowd cheering us on.

 

Of course, most of the lights that we are turning on during the day are nothing like the light displays that we see around Christmas time.  And in recent years, there seems to have been an increase in the creativity and competition of Christmas lights - like the fantastic display at this local house which gets up to 300 visitors a day over the festive period.

 

 

But why do we like the light so much? 

 

There seems to be something within us which prefers light to dark, which celebrates lightness championing over darkness.

 

This is a story that is played out throughout the Bible and which peaks at Christmas (and, again, at Easter.)

 

John describes Jesus' birth like this:

"What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out."

 

[John 1: 4-5 MSG]

 

That's the thing about light, isn't it?  It always conquers darkness.  No matter how dark it is, light always wins.  A tiny flame from a tiny match will still be visible in the dark.  Lights from a city on a hill are visible for miles around, no matter how dark the night is.

 

Light always wins.

 

And whilst we take our Christmas lights down after Christmas and put them away until next year, Jesus is an ever-lasting, eternal light, who will always guide us and give us life.  In the words of one of my favourite carols,

 

"Yet in the dark streets shineth the ever-lasting light."

 

 

 

 

The Best of Both Worlds

I make the best brownies in the world.

 

Seriously.

 

I think brownies are probably my favourite thing to bake (and then eat).  They are a delicious and satisfying sweet treat, somewhere between cake and fudge.  Too squidgy and moist and dense to actually be cake, and yet too crumbly and flaky for chocolate fudge.

 

They are the perfect combination of both.  They are in a category of their own and I can't quite get my head around it.

 

In the same way, I can't get my head around the fact that Jesus was both a man and God.  And not just half man and half God, like a centaur or a mermaid - an odd combination of both things.  The Bible says that Jesus was fully God and fully human.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it [...] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

 

[John 1:1-5, 14 NIV]

 

The "Word" John writes about is Jesus.  He was with God in the beginning and is equal to Creator God.  But Jesus became a flesh-and-blood human in order to live with us and lead us back to God.

 

In The Message translation this passage reads,

 

       "The Word became flesh and blood,
       and moved into the neighbourhood."

 

       [John 1:14 MSG]

 

God became human through Jesus and 'moved into the neighbourhood'. 

 

Like brownies, Jesus is the perfect combination.  Cake and fudge.  Man and God. 

 

The best of both worlds.

 

 

Real Food

I found myself ordering a salad the other evening from a food outlet which advertised its "real food".  Now, I haven't been tempted to eat pretend plastic food since my childhood, so I found the promotional technique a little odd.

What else would I be looking for other than "real food"?

I think the advertising ploy was intended to conjure up images of handmade, lovingly crafted, good-for-you food, the kind of food you'd cook at home and know was both healthy and tasty.  I think it was a statement of a shift away from the mass-produced, deep-fried, instant food of many fast food outlets. 

It got me thinking about what we mean by 'real', especially by 'real food' in a spiritual sense: something that will satisfy our deepest hunger and will 'do us good'.

We all hunger.  For meaning, for significance, for purpose.  We want to know that we matter, that we belong and that we are loved.  It is a hunger and a desire in each of us, which reaches to the depths our beings.

We try to fill this hunger in many different ways and with many different 'foods'.  We turn to money and wealth and jobs and fame and popularity and 'coolness' and relationship and friendship and children and sex and alcohol and TV and clothes and books and the list goes on and on.

And all of these things fill us for a little while.  Some even taste good.

But they don't satisfy our hunger for long.  We always want more.  They can't satisfy the very depths of our longings.

There is only one 'real food' who can satiate our hunger: Jesus.

He described Himself as providing this "real food" and nourishment for our spirits and our souls:

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

[John 6:35 NLT]

And He warned,

"Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food [...] work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides."

[John 6:27 MSG]

One of my favourite songs which considers this issue is by Plumb and is called 'God Shaped Hole' (you might recognise it from the film 'Bruce Almighty').  These are the words -

Every point of view has another angle
And every angle has its merit
But it all comes down to faith
That's the way I see it

You can say that love is not divine and
You can say that life is not eternal
"All we have is now"
But I don't believe it

There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And the restless soul is searching
There's a God-shaped hole in all of us
And it's a void only He can fill

Does the world seem grey with empty longing
Wearing every shade of cynical?
And do you ever feel that
There is something missing?

I would love to say that when I feel hungry, I always opt for the "real food" option - both literally and spiritually - but all too often I prefer the cheap, fast easy alternatives.  As I continue to grow in my relationship with Jesus I want to be able to say, in the words of the song,
"Hungry I come to You, For I know You satisfy."

Coaching

I have been really enjoying watching the gymnastics at the Olympics over the last couple of days.  I am always amazed by how flexible and strong the gymnasts are, and by how effortless it all appears.

I have just been watching the uneven bars and have been amazed, not just by the gymnasts, but by the coaches.  Apparently they have to remain under the bars whilst their gymnast competes, which is called 'spotting'.  They are there for the safety of their gymnast. 

Some of the coaches I have seen this afternoon have been literally millimetres away from the gymnasts as the gymnasts have swung from bar to bar.  Every time the gymnasts looked as though they might fall, the coaches would reach out a hand, ready to steady them or grab them.  But if they do touch the gymnasts whilst they are still on the bars, there is a penalty.  Consequently, the coaches have the tricky job of needing to be ready to step in and support the gymnast if needed, but maintaining their distance if not.

Of course, the gymnast hopes they won't need the support of their coach whilst they are competing, but it is reassuring to know they are there.

Jesus told His disciples that He would send them a 'coach'  when He returned to heaven; someone who would encourage and support and protect them:

"When the Friend comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.  He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said."

[John 16:13-14 MSG]

Our coach is the Holy Spirit.  Someone who is on our team and wants the best for us; someone who will support and uphold us; someone who will always be there for us, ready to pick us back up when we fall.

He holds us by the hand and guides us into a deeper understanding of ourselves, and of God.  He doesn't draw attention to Himself, in the same way that a gymnast's coach doesn't draw attention to himself.  But He is always ready to step in and help us, whenever we need it.

That's the kind of coach I want.

"Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand."

[Psalm 37:24 NLT]

Near Death Experience

When I moved into my flat just before Christmas last year, I did a 'big food shop' and overspent on all sorts of things to set me up for the next few months.

One of the things that I bought was the obligatory basil plant.

It sat on my window sill in a cheery blue pot and I occasionally watered it and, even less frequently, actually used the leaves in any form of cooking.

Until one sad morning when I realised that insufficient watering had led to a withered, wilted, yellow, dry plant.

It was on its way to the bin when I thought: It's pretty much dead.  Why not water it and see what happens?  It's not like you can drown it.

So I did.

I drenched it in water and by the end of the same day, it had been restored to life.

But this is not the basil plant's only near death experience.

This has happened at least six times since.  I don't know why, but I manage to forget to water it for days on end.  And then just when it seems as though I really will have to admit defeat and throw it out, I water it and it is miraculously restored to life.

Nearly seven months later, it is still going strong.

It can be the same with us and our faith: we can feel dried out, shrivelled up, weary, hopeless, fed-up and ready to give up.  But in these times, if we immerse ourselves in God's Word and drench ourselves with His love, we can be restored.

"Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless live."

[John 4:14 MSG]

"He leads me beside quiet waters,

He restores my soul."

        [Psalm 23:3 MSG]


          "I'll refresh tired bodies;
          I'll restore tired souls."
          [Jeremiah 31:25 MSG]


When we're experiencing 'near death' moments in our faith, let's give it one last go; let's soak ourselves in God and His Word and His love and see if that doesn't revive our souls.

Scars

Scars.

We all have them.

I have several on my wrists from baking-related incidents and a jelly-fish scar on my upper arm. 

Some people are proud of their scars and love showing them off and recounting how they got them.  Some people will do anything to remove them - there are oils and creams and operations to get rid of them, so that we appear flawless.

And sometimes we have scars on the inside too.

But rather than trying to hide our scars, sometimes they are useful.  As Dumbledore says,

"Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground."

Scars can be useful.

They don't have to define us, but they show us what has happened in our lives and, more importantly, what God has done in our lives.  When Jesus was resurrected, He still had scars and it was because of these that the disciples (and Thomas in particular), believed:

"He [Thomas] said, 'Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won't believe it.'  Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room.  This time Thomas was with them.  Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, 'Peace to you.'  Then he focused his attention on Thomas.  'Take your hand and stick it in my side.  Don't be unbelieving.  Believe.'  Thomas said, 'My master!  My God!'"

[John 20:25-28 MSG]

Scars show our injuries and our pain, but they also show God's healing and His power.  And they can help other people to believe when we aren't afraid to share them.

        "So praise God we don't have to hide scars

        They just strengthen our wounds, and they soften our hearts.

        They remind us of where we have been, but not who we are

        So praise God, praise God we don't have to hide scars

 

        There once was a King who so burdened with grief

        Walked into death so that we could find peace

        He rose up with scars on his hands and his feet

        By them we are healed, by them we are healed.

        So praise God we don't have to hide scars

        Yeah we know His are covering ours."

 

        [Johnny Diaz 'Scars']

 

We can't get rid of the scars on the inside, but we can use them to point people to the one who knows our pain and who can heal us.

 

 

 

Home Sweet Home

Last year, I became a grown up.  I bought my first home: a lovely little flat.

I have since spent my time and my pennies decorating it and furnishing it with pretty things.  And I have thoroughly enjoyed choosing furniture and photo frames and fabric.  I have picked out things that I like and that suit me.

I have made it my own.

In the same way, Jesus told His disciples that He was going ahead of us to prepare a room for each of us in His Kingdom:

"There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home.  If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on my way to get a room ready for you?  And if I'm on my way to get your room ready, I'll come back and get you so you can live where I live."

[John 14:2-4 MSG]

Sometimes, we long for this heavenly home, because we feel out of place and uncomfortable "in the world".  We feel as though we don't belong.

And that is true.  As Christians, our home is no longer in this world.  Jesus calls us out of a world which denies Him and doesn't acknowledge Him as Lord and into real relationship with Him.

"If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world."

[John 15:19 NIV]

A "Christian catchphrase" that gets tossed around a lot is "in the world, but not of the world." Whilst we still live in the world and are called to engage with it, we are only temporary residents here. This is not our home.

Perhaps we should see ourselves as 'renting' whilst we are on earth.  We can enjoy the experience and enter into it fully, without being shaped by it, because we know it isn't permanent:

"Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think."

[Romans12:2 NLT]

Let's never lose sight of the fact that this isn't our final residence.  This is not our Home Sweet Home.

These are some of the words from Where I Belong  by Building 429 [video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtsB4O1p3o]

         "All I know is I'm not home yet

         This is not where I belong

         Take this world and give me Jesus

         This is not where I belong."

Full Repair

Split ends.

I have a love/hate relationship with them.  Of course no one wants split ends, they make your hair feel rough and frizzy and look dull at the ends.  But there is something tremendously satisfying about eradicating them.  Either by finding and trimming or, more severely, by pulling them out from the roots.

As a result of dyeing my hair too often and too much heat styling, I seem to have nothing but split ends.  I have just treated myself to some "Full Repair" Shampoo, Conditioner and Intensive Serum, which I am hoping will transform my dull, dead ends. 

Whilst all of the products will hopefully smooth my hair and improve the look and feel of it, I doubt if it can really fully repair my hair.  What my hair probably needs is a good trim, but I am hoping to postpone the need for a cut as long as possible. 

I am hoping this will be a quick fix for my hair until I can afford a proper cut.

Sometimes we have the same approach to our faith or to the 'broken' things in our lives: rather than taking the plunge and trimming, or "cutting off" the dead things, we look for a quick fix.  We look for something that will smooth things over and improve the look and feel of our lives.

But, in order for us to grow, we need to get rid of the dead things in our lives, not just cover them up or smooth them down.  Jesus said,

"I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more."

[John 15:1-2 NLT emphasis mine]

The reason for cutting off the dead branches in our lives is not simply to get rid of the things that aren't producing fruit, but in order to ensure more growth.

Sometimes a full repair is only possible with a proper trim.