"Love isn't something that we find...."

"Love isn't something
that we find,
it's something that we do...”

Clint Black's 1997 love song,  "Something That We Do"  often comes to me when I am reading the gospels. It always makes me think of Jesus' life. Love wasn't in his words, it was the "how" of his living.

And even though Clint wrote this song about his marriage, it speaks to many paradigms about Love.  Love for our children, those we serve, fellow church members, work colleagues, neighbors, and yes, significant others and spouses.  Even love for our jobs, communities, employers, public servants.

Today, for me, it addresses the lie that love is waiting for the right object for its affections -- in order to fully be itself.  Waiting for the right person or situation to come along.   Or that we have a choice about whether (or not) to love, what to love, when to love, or who to love.  That we have the capacity to assesses something (or someone's) deserving and then we have the right to decide whether to extend affections. Love is not a choice. Love is not a reward to dole out.  This passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is, for me, so clarifying and assuring:

"Life is, always has been,
and ever will be independent
of matter; for Life is God..."

So, you might wonder, how does that related to Love? Well, Love and Life are synonymous [Webster: "one directly implies the other'] So to say that Life is independent of matter, also implies that Love is independent of person, place, or circumstance.

Love -- true Love -- is not dependent on anything. Love is self-existent. Love does not assess deserving, and then choose what it will bestow its affection upon. Just as the sun does not choose what to shine on. Love, like the sun, is impartial about the object of its expression. It loves, because it can do no less. Love that can be stopped, averted, decreased, or managed -- is not Love. It might be a sense of human affection or personal bestowal -- but it is not Love.

Leonard Nimoy once wrote:

"If Love can be withdrawn,
it never was."

I can't think of a truer statement about love.

Now we might -- out of love for someone -- step back from the immediacy of a relationship, and let growth occur, or we might let there be space for deeper listening, self-examination, or a shift in the shape of that love and the role we each play. We might feel Love-led to release someone from a human sense of belonging to us, for a deeper sense of trust in God's appointing and anointing. But make no mistake, Love itself cannot be withdrawn -- it is invariable and eternal. The love that once was, always will be. Love isn't something we control humanly, it is the spiritual power that controls us.

Love isn't waiting for us to find the right person, to manage it as a resource, or control it like a bank account. Love is so much more than a human emotion which we find, fall into, or fight for -- or against. Love is the ultimate power working in us. Moving us into alignment with God's purpose for us.

Love uses us. We don't use Love.  We don't apply it, or decide to repress it.  Love is more powerful than our decisions, aims, or adaptations.  Love is everything.  Or as Mary Baker Eddy tells us in her poem, "Love:"

"Love alone is Life..."

Love is not a choice, it is not a decision, it is not a reward, it is not a gift. Love is the ultimate power of God working in us - governing, guiding, impelling, silencing. Love is the great imperative. It is our Life.

offered with Love,

Cate

"Safe in the arms of Love..."

"I want a heart to be forever mine,
I want eyes to see me satisfied,
Gonna hang my heartaches out to dry...
Someday I'm gonna be safe in the arms of love,
Safe in the arms Of Love"

I heard the first verse of Martina McBride's "Safe in the Arms of Love," the other day, and there wasn't a moment's hesitation to my response...

"Hey, I've got that...I've already got all of that."

And it was a feeling that ran very deep...like an underground river.  I didn't have to reason it out, or ponder it for a long time...it was as immediate, and present, as any feeling I've ever had.  And I think maybe, it just might be, that Jesus' message of "the kingdom of heaven is within you" is finally getting through! 

It infinitely clear that, the only heart that will ever be "forever mine," is...well, mine.  That the one, and only, love that I can always be sure of, is the love that I am feeling...for God, and for others.  It's within me...and nothing can take it away.  Nothing, and no one, can deprive me of its constancy, its reliability, its ever-presence.  It's source is God, Love...so, by reflection, it is mine...and it's forever mine.  Because I am His, forever His. 

That doesn't mean that the affection, warmth, and tenderness that I feel,  from others...my loved ones -- family and friends...brings any less sweetness, happiness, and joy.  Quite the contrary.  I experience each moment of their love with an even greater wonder and delight because it is no longer a measure of how much love I have in my life.  The love in my life is full and overflowing...but it comes from within...not without.   It's only defined by the love I have to give, not the love I hope to get.

And as for those "eyes that see me satisfied..."  Well, they look back at me from the mirror every morning.  I know that, as Mary Baker Eddy says, in her poem, "Satisfied":

"It matters not, what be thy lot
so Love doth guide."

It no longer matters whether I am experiencing a lot of love, or that my lot in life...at any given moment....is lean with aloneness, or gaping with opportunities to grow in grace, to be a blessing in the world I walk in.  As long as I am letting Love guide my heart, my motives, my speech and actions, I have the right to be...and am... satisfied.  And I can see this contentment in myself, and know that it is unshakeable.

So tonight, as I sit here thinking about all the campers, counselors, staff, and bunkhouse parents...who have gathered at various summer camps across the country to grow spiritually, and make new friends ...I am feeling such deep peace knowing that the kingdom of heaven is within each of us, that our hearts are guided solely by Love, that we are  safe in, and as, His outreached arms of extended blessings...and, that we are...right now...satisfied. 

rest well....

Kate

"Because of you..."

"Because of you
there's a song in my heart..."

I was thinking today of all the times when I have felt as if someone's presence in my life, made a day, an hour, a moment sing.  My daughters, our son, my husband, our mothers, sisters, brothers...their spouses, my nieces, nephews, my girlfriends, my guy friends, my four-legged, and winged friends,  the folks who bless me with their calls and visits...you all have made me feel like, "because of you, there's a song in my heart..."

Don't you just love this Tony Bennett and k.d. lang version of such a beautiful classic?  I do.  I love it because of the collaboration it represents.  I love it because it speaks of how a common love for music erases generational lines and brings two people together to bless countless others.

I thought about writing this piece about "Because of You," from the vantage point of the "You" being God.  And of course, in the deepest sense, this is the only "You," in my spiritual life.   But, I believe, there is a collaborative paradox at work here. It would seem that in plumbing the depths of my relationship with God, and my knowing of Him, I must look within, to the "I AM" of being. And the only way I can discover the changeless nature of God, as Love, is to probe the strength of an unconditional, illimitable capacity to love in myself. And to do that, I need you. I need the canvas of our relationship, to discover that the "I AM" of Love really is all that I believe it to be...fathomless, burdenless, empowering.

So, it makes sense to me, as the Bible says, that,

"God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten son..."

God gave us Jesus, so that we would know Him...God.  Mary Baker Eddy urges us to understand that:

"Jesus was the highest human
       concept of the perfect man."

And as "the great Exemplar," his humanity, helped us to understand the breadth of our own divine possibilities, and potential...as mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, neighbors, global citizens, and friends.  In fact, Eddy further avers:

"The divinity of the Christ was made
       manifest in the humanity of Jesus."

and that:

"Through the magnitude of his human life,
he demonstrated the divine Life.
Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love."

You are the face of divinity, outlined as humanity, in my life.  Each of you...through the humanity of your compassion-based understanding, your kindness, your forgivenenss, your grace your humor, your generosity of spirit...has given me a window on the nature, character, heart, and voice of God.   And I feel so deeply blessed.

It is not in the words you have spoken, but the way you have said them.  It is not in the things you have done, but how you have done them.  It is not in the things you have given, but the heartbeat...a rhythm just below the more obvious melody of your giving...that has taught me the verity of Eddy's statement:

"Love alone is Life."

Your hugs, phone calls, visits, notes, emails...prayers, have allowed me to feel the embrace of God. And it is this feeling, more than any words -- including the most sacred Scriptures -- that have shown me the living Christ...right here, right now.   You make a difference in my life...every day.

thank you...
Kate
Kate Robertson, CS