There is dark side to love, its rarely
talked about, but its there. In Christianity there is a tendency to
love things into oblivion, though we don't always know why or how
that looks.
One day in high school, I awoke to find
my older brother asleep on the couch downstairs. My home, having
always been a shelter and community center of sorts, always gave me
plenty of random roommates. I regularly found myself sleeping on the
floor, the couch was a lucky break.
I made my way into the kitchen with a
few others, right next to where he slept, out cold, the typical
mean-spirited teenage banter ensued. We weren't aware of what we were
saying, therefore we could not be offended, but he arose, incensed,
on our behalf apparently.
“You guys need to love!” The angry
words were hard to decipher from the grog of recent dreaming. “You
guys need to learn how to love!” Power so richly emanated from his
fists, a fireball would have been overlooked. “You're so angry and
mean!” His knuckles pounded what his words failed to express, the
wall again suffering for our familial rage. We laughed about this one
for years. Its truth only now touches me.
He felt half crazy: another person,
another day.
“I can't stand them anymore,” said
the young disheveled artist as we scurried the city streets, he had
to be more extroverted than I was. “I like them, then I get them
to like me,” he sounded like...a people addict...like me, “then
they love me, they invite me everywhere,” he looked miserable, “and
then...,” I waited patiently, “I can't stand them anymore.” His
world was so dependent on what others said, it drove him mad.
Dependency is real, it occurs right at
the moment we'd rather die than offed someone, rather smile than
speak out, rather condone than correct. Its no fun. One learns to
seek approval at the hands of people, like a pup seeks kibble. Its
demeaning. And its not who Jesus was.
The same Jesus that asked us to turn
the other cheek (Matthew 5:39) also turned over the tables of thieves
at His Father's House (John 2:15).
The solution is to love in context of
the Gospel, to express grace and truth with balanced strength, to
speak softly when comfort is needed, but pound your fists when its
time for folks to wake up.
May we be prepared to hug or kick at
all times.
“I am sending you out like sheep
among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as
doves.”
-Matthew 10:16
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