"God's problem is not that God is not able to do certain things. God's problem is that God loves. Love complicates the life of God as it complicates every life." - Philip Yancey
Once the blindfold was taken off of us, we had everything. All good and perfect was ours, but we destroyed it. We destroyed the heart of the Lover because we are foolish and selfish. I haven't always had the greatest sense of empathy. When I am in the midst of my own drama, I remain quite emotional; when I am viewing someone else's drama, I remain quite logical. It is the blessing and cursing that I carry. It is the juxtaposition that I carry from my mother and father.
But, imagining myself as the beloved, eyes unshielded and the world laid bare...I see a bit more clearly. When I graduated high school, my brother bought me a laptop. It wasn't the first selfless act he had ever done for me, nor would it be the last, but I remember this one particular time because there are pictures to prove my reaction. I was in shock. I was awed that he had spent his money on me: a bratty girl who had/has a tendency to be selfish. However, when he presented me with this gift, I was astounded and so touched.
Now, I put that on a grander scale, and imagine what it must have been like for man to walk into the perfect world. The world without pain and suffering and goodness and love and all things that we can imagine as being the ultimate good. Perhaps a slight difference was that man knew no pain or suffering. But we do. We do, and so we see the betrayal of the beloved towards the lover as a mistake the rest of us must bear. And so we do.
I think what most of us forget is that the love that brought us into being is the love that was shared between the Lovers 3. If we are truly mindful of the reason for our creation, we can see a slightly more intimate connection. When man failed, we failed. We failed because we fail. We didn't fail because we were present then, but we are present now...and we still continue to fail. In act II, we took the engagement ring of our lover and we threw it in his face because it was too perfect. We took the laptop that was given to us at graduation and threw it back to our brother because it was too selfless. We took perfection and smeared it with shit because it was too dazzling.
That is where we failed. That is where we continue to fail. And, as we ran away or were thrown out on our ass because we betrayed the perfect love, we look back to find our lover licking his wounds. Remember, God is the hero. God is the one who was gracious enough to share in his love, only to be kicked down for his uncomplicated giving. Most of us, if reading this story by taking God and ourselves out of it would be perfectly okay with the hero of the story leaving the betrayer behind. It would be just and righteous. We might even scoff if the hero went back to the beloved to try to win that ungrateful wretch back.
Imagine if you heard a lover's spat through the walls of the apartment.
"I long to be gracious to you. You are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you. But you- -come here, you...you...You have been false to me. Yet...I will take delight in you. (from Isaiah)
What fault did you find in me that you strayed so far from me? Should I not avenge myself? I have loved you with an ever lasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. What have I done to make you hate me so much? (from Jeremiah)
So, we are left with a lover who is broken and betrayed and destroyed...the Lover's heart is broken.
Once the blindfold was taken off of us, we had everything. All good and perfect was ours, but we destroyed it. We destroyed the heart of the Lover because we are foolish and selfish. I haven't always had the greatest sense of empathy. When I am in the midst of my own drama, I remain quite emotional; when I am viewing someone else's drama, I remain quite logical. It is the blessing and cursing that I carry. It is the juxtaposition that I carry from my mother and father.
But, imagining myself as the beloved, eyes unshielded and the world laid bare...I see a bit more clearly. When I graduated high school, my brother bought me a laptop. It wasn't the first selfless act he had ever done for me, nor would it be the last, but I remember this one particular time because there are pictures to prove my reaction. I was in shock. I was awed that he had spent his money on me: a bratty girl who had/has a tendency to be selfish. However, when he presented me with this gift, I was astounded and so touched.
Now, I put that on a grander scale, and imagine what it must have been like for man to walk into the perfect world. The world without pain and suffering and goodness and love and all things that we can imagine as being the ultimate good. Perhaps a slight difference was that man knew no pain or suffering. But we do. We do, and so we see the betrayal of the beloved towards the lover as a mistake the rest of us must bear. And so we do.
I think what most of us forget is that the love that brought us into being is the love that was shared between the Lovers 3. If we are truly mindful of the reason for our creation, we can see a slightly more intimate connection. When man failed, we failed. We failed because we fail. We didn't fail because we were present then, but we are present now...and we still continue to fail. In act II, we took the engagement ring of our lover and we threw it in his face because it was too perfect. We took the laptop that was given to us at graduation and threw it back to our brother because it was too selfless. We took perfection and smeared it with shit because it was too dazzling.
That is where we failed. That is where we continue to fail. And, as we ran away or were thrown out on our ass because we betrayed the perfect love, we look back to find our lover licking his wounds. Remember, God is the hero. God is the one who was gracious enough to share in his love, only to be kicked down for his uncomplicated giving. Most of us, if reading this story by taking God and ourselves out of it would be perfectly okay with the hero of the story leaving the betrayer behind. It would be just and righteous. We might even scoff if the hero went back to the beloved to try to win that ungrateful wretch back.
Imagine if you heard a lover's spat through the walls of the apartment.
"I long to be gracious to you. You are precious and honored in my sight, because I love you. But you- -come here, you...you...You have been false to me. Yet...I will take delight in you. (from Isaiah)
What fault did you find in me that you strayed so far from me? Should I not avenge myself? I have loved you with an ever lasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. What have I done to make you hate me so much? (from Jeremiah)
So, we are left with a lover who is broken and betrayed and destroyed...the Lover's heart is broken.
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