To Risk Love

May we bravely remove the lens through which we see this mid-February season - whether that be the rose-tinted lens of romance, or the bitter lens of loneliness.  May we muster the courage to admit how deeply we long for love.  May we risk vulnerability, exposing our hearts in all their rawness, that we may be known.  May we set aside our insecurities - looking out instead of in - that we may see others and know them authentically.  May we learn to see people - ourselves included - the way the Creator of all sees us and rest in the experience of His complete approval.  May we choose the practice of genuine love daily with the people and in the places where we feel least comfortable - for the friend we've always taken for-granted, the stranger we would otherwise walk by unthinkingly, the grocery store cashier, the girl who lives across the hall, the one we've condescended as a misfit instead of initiating real friendship; for the crush that rejected us, the clique that mocked us, the boss we don't respect, the parent we have pushed away to gain our independence.  May we grow to savour relationship as much as we crave romance, and relegate romantic love to its right place as salt and pepper seasoning instead of the sole means by which we fill our love-hungry appetites.  And in time, may your romance grow to reflect the way in which your Saviour romances your soul, knowing deeply and being deeply known, not only so that you may bask in the pleasure of rich romance (though this too is good), but that the richness of your relationship may spill over to invite others into community.


Familiar from last February?  Yup.  Like a cow with four stomachs, I sometimes feel the need to regurgitate things I once thought and wrote, having not fully digested them in all their richness.  (Just the mental image you wanted on this fine day... I know.)  Edited, expanded, refined, reshuffled.  New quote, because I've been thinking and talking about C.S. Lewis' Four Loves recently.  Much life has happened in the last year, and my thoughts have evolved with the predictable passage of time as God continues to work in me.  That... and I really wanted to write a post titled "In defence of flirting..." but it seemed like bad timing.  You'll have to wait until next week for that one.  Much love, friends!