There is the old cliché, it is better to give than to receive. As kids, we thought how wrong that was, but as we grew, we slowly discovered it is an essential truth. That joy, that bliss that Spencer mentioned, is found in giving. Think of Mr. Parker (My old man) in “A Christmas Story,” how giddy he was to give Ralphie the Red Ryder BB gun. Some of the happiest, giddiest moments of my life have been when I was able to give someone the thing they wanted, but were unable to find, make, or afford. And when it made with your own hands—a true labor of love—the feeling is that much greater.
In a sanctified moment we are like the original one who did good and then rested. We have access to the one who offered "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you." Thanks for wrestling into words the path to this bliss.
I laughed out loud in the beginning of this entry and by the end I’m completely with you in the profound way agape love gives us the freedom to serve and live like Christ. Oh, and the bliss…
I'm reading Daniel James Brown's wonderful narrative history, "The Boys in the Boat." His description of the sublime moment when the eight rowers completely give themselves in trust and self-forgetting to becoming one integrated movement is so lyrical, it feels like a picture of the eternal oneness Jesus describes in John's gospel. Agape love, I hear you both saying, is a self-forgetting---not self-denying---act.
This feeling is the gift of being a parent. When I am with my kids and I can do something as only a mother can do, it is total bliss. That fact that so many young people don't want kids is so sad. But when you take away the Bible, they do not hear the words of Christ and only hear it's all about me.
That was the BEST, most clever opening EVER, Spencer! "Only introducing himself" killed me! (Sorry, Andrew!) Thank you so much, both of, for revealing daily what true, intelligent, thoughtful conversation looks like. If only more of this kind of discourse happened at all levels in our country...world! ❤️
A tee shirt that came home from church camp when my kids were little some decades ago stated “Ain’t No High Like The Most High.” As a child of the 60s, I must agree. I think this is what you’re saying above (Cliff’s Notes version). 😂
“Jesus is said to have responded, “Word.”” That and what followed were epic. I’m 62 and somewhat embarrassed to say how recently I came to know that the Word of God is Jesus. It makes me smile when I think of how much more I don’t know.
It's almost like there's a reality that we keep bumping into but is larger than ours, deeper, and inaccessible but for prayer, fasting, self sacrifice for others. Looking not at ourselves but at others and what glimmers back to us is a possession of love and joy that continually grows and grows within us. I like the analogy of the book Flatlander, a book about a first dimension creature that journeys into the second dimension, and how his world changes completely. We're creatures of the third dimension but we can sense greater dimensions than our own, the pathway to which is through prayer, fasting, and self sacrifice for others, to our great reward or through a selfish cycle of abuse to yourself and others, to our eternal condemnation.
There is the old cliché, it is better to give than to receive. As kids, we thought how wrong that was, but as we grew, we slowly discovered it is an essential truth. That joy, that bliss that Spencer mentioned, is found in giving. Think of Mr. Parker (My old man) in “A Christmas Story,” how giddy he was to give Ralphie the Red Ryder BB gun. Some of the happiest, giddiest moments of my life have been when I was able to give someone the thing they wanted, but were unable to find, make, or afford. And when it made with your own hands—a true labor of love—the feeling is that much greater.
In a sanctified moment we are like the original one who did good and then rested. We have access to the one who offered "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you." Thanks for wrestling into words the path to this bliss.
I’m truly enjoying this agape love feast.
I laughed out loud in the beginning of this entry and by the end I’m completely with you in the profound way agape love gives us the freedom to serve and live like Christ. Oh, and the bliss…
I'm reading Daniel James Brown's wonderful narrative history, "The Boys in the Boat." His description of the sublime moment when the eight rowers completely give themselves in trust and self-forgetting to becoming one integrated movement is so lyrical, it feels like a picture of the eternal oneness Jesus describes in John's gospel. Agape love, I hear you both saying, is a self-forgetting---not self-denying---act.
This feeling is the gift of being a parent. When I am with my kids and I can do something as only a mother can do, it is total bliss. That fact that so many young people don't want kids is so sad. But when you take away the Bible, they do not hear the words of Christ and only hear it's all about me.
That was the BEST, most clever opening EVER, Spencer! "Only introducing himself" killed me! (Sorry, Andrew!) Thank you so much, both of, for revealing daily what true, intelligent, thoughtful conversation looks like. If only more of this kind of discourse happened at all levels in our country...world! ❤️
A tee shirt that came home from church camp when my kids were little some decades ago stated “Ain’t No High Like The Most High.” As a child of the 60s, I must agree. I think this is what you’re saying above (Cliff’s Notes version). 😂
“Jesus is said to have responded, “Word.”” That and what followed were epic. I’m 62 and somewhat embarrassed to say how recently I came to know that the Word of God is Jesus. It makes me smile when I think of how much more I don’t know.
It's almost like there's a reality that we keep bumping into but is larger than ours, deeper, and inaccessible but for prayer, fasting, self sacrifice for others. Looking not at ourselves but at others and what glimmers back to us is a possession of love and joy that continually grows and grows within us. I like the analogy of the book Flatlander, a book about a first dimension creature that journeys into the second dimension, and how his world changes completely. We're creatures of the third dimension but we can sense greater dimensions than our own, the pathway to which is through prayer, fasting, and self sacrifice for others, to our great reward or through a selfish cycle of abuse to yourself and others, to our eternal condemnation.