The last post raised some really fascinating ideas, and brought me, at least, to a conclusion other (and, I hope better) than where I started. My conclusion was in my last comment:
“And now that I’ve had to walk around this block a few times, I guess my conclusion goes back to the post that really started this discussion… are we pawns in God’s cosmic chess game? Now the conclusion I’m compelled to draw from thought, prayer, and the loving commentary of my brothers and sisters is that as we’re moved around the board, as we live our lives in our squares, that we are continually and unceasingly to “love the Lord our God with all of our…” heart, mind, strength, soul, passion, emotion… aggregated and interchangeable or not… in intimate partnership with Him, as the tapestries of our lives unfold.”So the whole thing comes down to loving the God who created us… in everything we do... actively, and in intimate partnership with Him. Danny might say that we can offer continual worship to Him… Paul the Apostle might consider that continuous prayer.
All of this, of course, raised a question for me… what IS love?
Well, the first and most obvious biblical response is from 1 John 4:16: “God is Love.” This forms an essential part of the premise, but for me, it is still somewhat undistilled. God IS indeed love… yes, a part of the essence of God is love, but He is so much more… And I have difficulty if we take this simple truth as an identity… God is love, but can we also say Love is God? Again, this just doesn’t seem complete. Love is a facet of God, but saying that Love is the same thing as God, and that provides a complete, working definition doesn’t, for me, satisfy. Now maybe this is my arrogant intellect, but I need more…
To be Continued…
1 comment:
"“Blog Circle” of folks who are thoughtful, critical in a positive sense, and willing to put their thoughts and ideas into a forum where we can all consider and grow in our understanding… hopefully." Indeed I agree it is a blessing to see that there is fellowship on a regular basis online. Though I must say it is nothing compared to meeting in person and talking about life. However, it is definitely a way to reach out to each other and explore deeper notions of life in this "suffering" of "Silicon Valley" (as Steph posted about).
I was there that one night at Terra Nova, when you first proposed the question to us of "what IS love?" At first I responded with the most obvious biblical response and yet as you... rejected isn't the word for it... looked beyond that definition, so did I. So far, my definitions of love have been merely the results of love or expressions of it, such as caring for someone, or wanting what's best for them, cliches, etc.
Some of the other definitions, or at least parts of love, which I've theorized have been that love is us sensing God in others. Cause if God is love and we feel love, perhaps we are feeling God or glimpsing his feeling for us (?). Another idea is that love is a motivation, since it leads to all these results and expressions of it then it must be the motivating factor behind them.
~ Looking forward to the continuation...
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