The War For Love

" It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area. The people gathered around Him, saying, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered, 'I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.  No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one.' "  [John 10: 23-30.]

The world is at war. It is a battle over Love.

The opposite of Evil is not Good. The opposite of Evil is Love. Evil cannot survive in an environment of total Love. Smothered in Love, Evil perishes.

I was at war as a child. I desperately hoped for the Love that never came.

I was given four day old gravy and grey beef for dinner. When I could not eat it, I simply ate the cucumber slices and the noodles also on my plate. Then, I resolved to find food elsewhere. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to His nourishment.

They squelched my cries when I was called ugly every day? I ended up with black eyes and a broken heart?  In turn, I tended my mother's garden and brought flowers into the home. I heard the voice of God, calling me to cultivate His beauty.

I ceased speaking, believing that there was nothing more that I could say in that house.  But then, I joined the children's choir at our church. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to sing His songs of praise.

A sibling quarrelled loudly over his refusal to do his homework. I offered to do his reading for him. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to establish peace.

My parents refused to keep taking me to church. I tucked my gold cross necklace under my shirt. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to have faith in Him.

I told my mother that I was cold, and she told me to stop acting up, and refused to allow me to fetch a sweater. I set about knitting her a vest, and knitting a sweater for a sibling. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to wrap even my enemies in warmth.

My mother abandoned me in a far off city when I was a young woman, after I had been beaten and almost killed in a violent crime. Many years later, I did not abandon her, after my father had died, when she was alone and frail and in grief.  No, I brought her to live near me and I cared for her in her last years. I heard the voice of Jesus, calling me to forgiveness.

In the last few months, the world has seen heartbreaking images in the news:  an on-going civil war in Syria that has displaced 750,000 citizens to refugee camps; bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed 3 and injured scores of others; a missile crisis in North Korea; a mass shooting at a Connecticut school, leaving 26 dead; poison-laced letters mailed to the President and a member of Congress; cold-blooded slayings of law enforcement officers.

I want to sit down and cry. I want to give up.

But my battle for Love has been life-long. I have waged a deliberate "chess match", of move and counter move.

Abuse? I walk away.
Hunger? I eat elsewhere.
Loud arguments? I broker peace.
Unforgiveable abandonment and cruelty? I forgive and nurture.

WHY would anyone do this? Am I a fool?

St. Paul, in Corinthians 2: 21-32, asks, " What anyone else dares to boast about -- I am speaking as a fool." He goes on to recount all that he endured for Christ's Love: "Five times I received forty lashes minus one; three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; I spent a day and a night in open sea; I have been in danger from rivers, from bandits, from my own countrymen, and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked."

I have been told that I have a steely bond with God. God IS Love. This is the only way that I know how to be. This is who I am. This is what I am. Love is what I am made of. Like Jesus'sheep, no one can separate me from God's Loving Hand.

The more hate, abuse, persecution, starvation, abandonment and cruelty, that you throw my way, the more I will stubbornly love you back. I refuse to stop loving. Nothing that anyone can do to me will stop me from loving.

Love is not a weak position of bargaining. It is a powerful weapon. It is the only thing that will ensure the survival of our planet. When you are waging battle in Love, "God's grace is sufficient for you, for His power is made perfect in weakness."  Your willingness to love, no matter what the circumstance, invites God's grace in. [ 2 Corinthians 12: 8-10].

In response to all the ugly vitriol in the world, will you fling back Hate at the haters? Will you cultivate and foment all that is wrong with the world?

Or, do you dare to throw untold Love in the face of those who hate and do evil? Will you remain
quiet and focused, eagerly straining to hear the voice of Jesus?

I pray that I am always ready to hear Jesus' voice, and to hear God's grace, in the War for Love.

[Related Posting: "In Battle For God", August 25, 2012].

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