In the throws of genuine Eros, we find ourselves making ridiculous claims. Everyone except you knows it won’t last. That’s comical to the rest of us. Eros teaches us that we must laugh at ourselves.
I knew God was drawing me more deeply into this depiction of God the Father. It brought me to a quote by C.S. Lewis in The Four Loves, “It is easy to acknowledge but most impossible to realize for long that we are mirrors whose brightness, if we are bright, is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.”
Be naked. Be naked in love with your spouse. Be naked before the Lord. Be naked in sharing who you really are within friendship.
This meeting of love and sorrow, the power of redemptive suffering, it is a deep and real love that reaches to the depths of who we are.
Often, we left behind a bit of chaos at home or snuck out of an appointment a little early to arrive in time to gather together.
As a sixteen year old, my group of friends that were so important to who I thought I was, or wanted to be, stopped talking to me.
Humans obviously have need-love. Thus, at first blush, divine love would be gift-love and human love would be need-love. Christianity would then be something like maturing from need-loves to gift-loves. Lewis argues this is not quite right, and Lewis is right about that.
None of us truly desires to be alone or to feel the loneliness of not being able to share our stories, hopes, dreams, struggles, and joys with another person. Yet practicing authenticity and vulnerability demands courage.
I’m one of THOSE people. I’ve been this way since adolescence for sure and probably even before then. A diary, a letter, an essay, or even an encyclopedia is preferable to me over most fiction.
