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.

 

Peace And Quiet

As a child, every year, at our village church Carol service, I would read the passage from Isaiah which foretold Jesus’ birth.
 

This year, I am back by popular demand.

 

It is one of my favourite Christmas passages and I probably know it off by heart. In fact, I even mentioned it on this blog just over a week ago.

 

       “The people walking in darkness

       have seen a great light;

       on those living in the land of the shadow of death

       a light has dawned […]

       For to us a child is born,

       to us a son is given,

       and the government will be on his shoulders.

       And he will be called

       Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

       Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

       [Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 NIV]

 

Last night, we were discussing this verse in detail and were considering the different names given to Jesus.  In particular, we considered what the title Prince of Peace meant.

 

When we think of ‘Peace’, we tend to think of it as being partnered with ‘Quiet’.  We enjoy a moment  of ‘Peace and Quiet’.  Peace is lying in the bath, relaxing with a glass of wine.  Peace is passive and still and tranquil.*

 

Or is it?

 

If we think of Peace in a war-torn land, or Peace between two fighting families, we find that Peace is something immensely valuable.  Peace is something worth fighting for.  Peace is the absence of conflict, it’s the end of a struggle.  Peace takes effort and sacrifice and intervention.  Peace doesn’t just happen.

 

Jesus came to bring Peace to men on earth.  Peace between men and Peace between man and God.  He came to bring wholeness and completion.  And He fought for it on the cross, until it was won.

 

Now, if we want it, we can have true, deep, lasting Peace, through a relationship with Jesus.  In the same way that a city can sleep peacefully because it knows its watchmen are vigilantly guarding the walls, we can have peace because Jesus is vigilantly watching over us.

 

“And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

[Philippians 4:7 NIV] 

 

 

* Or Peace is, as the 70s would have it, all-embracing, all-accepting, totally awesome.