"Love Sufficent Unto Love"

For a period of time in the lives of the Taylor children, we were "latch-key kids." We'd come home from school with both parents at work and like most children we'd wind up fighting with each other. But everyday, we would be united by one hour of time when we would sit and watch a soap opera that we loved. Had our parents been there we would have been prohibited from viewing it mind you!

Those soap operas (as do other tv shows now) demonstrated for us a picture of love that was truly worldly. Love was seen as fragile, something that could be given and taken away. It was controlling, possessive, co-dependent, often without trust and of course sexually oriented. It involved arguments and tensions of all sorts that ultimately ended in the tragedy of broken relationships. While the other pictures of love in our lives (that shared between our parents, our other family members etc.) was different, I've often wondered how much we were swayed by the images that we took in as we defiantly watched those shows each weekday.

Examining the levels of human consciousness from force toward power, we now find that the level building on reason is that of love. As regards reason, the participants in that level are so focused on specifics that they miss the larger picture. Love, in contrast, sees the wide angle view and thus there is more grace and forgiveness than the false love portrayed by so many television images.

In the Greek language there are many words for love but in my opinion the best description is that of agape love. We translate agape as unconditional love and that is precisely what this level of human consciousness is! It is unchanging and permanent. There are no fluctuations with this love and thus there is complete trust. Those who love in this fashion are able to create solidity in the context of their relationships. They nurture and support--not because of any decision that they make intellectually speaking but simply because their hearts are so big. Love extends from the heart. It buoys other people!

Reason was that place where data is so important and we find ourselves blinded by information but with love we find that our intuition takes over and pulls us toward a larger understanding of life's situation than reason could afford us. It is that intuition that gives us our clearest understanding of life. Love isn't about taking a position but rather focuses on all that is good. In the face of negativity it simply places the negative thoughts/behavior/etc. in a new context rather than attacking or judging it/them. Love is where happiness is truly found.

The Biblical scriptures tell us that "love never fails (I Corinthians 13)." That picture of how love never fails is seen in these words by Kahlil Gibran, "love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love posesses not nor would it be possessed; for love is sufficient unto love." (From The Prophet, p.13) That picture of how love never fails is seen in the people around us who live it out. My hope for us all is that we will reach the level of love, know its magnificent offerings and revel in sharing it with others. Such practice of love can only open the way to pure joy! May it be so!

Reason's Search for Truth

It was a blustery January day by my southern standards as I walked shivering across the campus of Princeton University. I had come for an interview as I was considering a Ph.D. in homiletics (preaching). My seminary professors had each given instructions on what to do when I arrived in Princeton. "Make it to the library!" said one. "Don't miss experiencing a chapel service," said another. "Whatever you do, just put your big toe on the grass at Albert Einstein's house," said the other.

My mind was filled with imaginings of what the third professor would say when he found out why I was walking so blithely yet frigidly toward Einstein's home. Not only would my big toe touch the ground, I was to have dinner with new found friends INSIDE his very home! I was so excited. Knowing that a man of brilliance and greatness had once walked that very sidewalk, ascended those very stairs and dined within the envelope of those walls was nothing less than thrilling!

Einstein has become such a representative of intellectualism that even phrases like, "Nice job, Einstein!" have become part of our language usage. Einstein was indeed brilliant and if he were here today, we could measure his level of human consciousness in the level known as reason. Of course, we've traversed the levels of force and examined the levels of power each one building on the one prior (courage, neutrality, willingness and acceptance) and now we find reason.

Reason is that level where the emotionalism of all of the other previous stages subsides. At this level amazing amounts of data can be processed for rapid decision making in way previously unknown to other stages. (At the very least, you would hope your doctor in an emergency room would live at this level!) This is the level of science and medicine that brings with it an ability for increased comprehension and conceptualization. Knowledge and education are valued supremely at this level. People who live at this level are often engrossed in their own thinking.

And thus the downfall of this level begins. Those who live at this level may well be some of the most creative thinkers among us and yet they can get caught in their own intellectualism. They miss the forest for their intense focus on the tree in front of them. Specifics are their great interest but balancing such knowledge can keep them from the balance of the whole picture. They become so utterly enamored with the technical that they tend to miss the spiritual. Given that fact, this is the highest level that most humans will ever reach as far too few are adept at enabling the spiritual balance necessary for transcending this level.

Ultimately, in one's search for truth, the person at this level will produce volumes of information but will lack the skills to propel them toward a definitive discovery of truth.

For all of the value that I found in those hours of soaking in Einstein's intellectual energy, I can only hope that somewhere along the way of my journey, Iwill have the spiritual capacity to transcend the stage of consciousness that ultimately held him hostage. I hope that for us all! May we find our way toward love! Amen.

Letters of Acceptance

The letter came in the mail and it must have been the second or third correspondence exchanged for the position for which I had been recommended. It wasn't so much a letter as a questionnaire and I found myself appalled by the questions. Not only were they redundant but there was one set of questions that gave me full incite into the group that was considering me for their senior pastor. While I cannot recall the phrasing of the questions, they said something like: How would you relate to people who are different from you? Do you envision yourself able to honor the diversity of others?

I realized that those questions wouldn't strike most people as odd. After all, we live in a culture that has come to value differences. We have all sorts of organizations formulated around people who have felt marginalized for one reason or another. But does that make it right? I'm all for valuing people, but as I read the questions I couldn't help but think about acceptance. That's what they were asking me to do. Right? They were asking me to accept others with all of their foibles but more than that they were asking me to agree and affirm others in their differences. What if I didn't agree with their lifestyles , their choices or their belief systems? Could I still accept them and could they not accept me?

I reasoned that this particular church had missed the mark. It had gotten so caught up in the service to the culture around it that it had begun to take on the values of that culture.

It seemed to me that acceptance wasn't about valuing diversity but unity. Why wouldn't the more fitting question be something like: Can you discern the commonalities with others and simply choose to love them? Isn't that what the gospel is about? If we can't agree on anything else, couldn't we agree that God is love? Couldn't we be bound together as a larger entity of people if we focused on our commonalities than if we focused on our differences? That was what acceptance meant to me.

Having discussed the levels of force and now the levels of power, we find that once we have grown through the stages of courage, neutrality and willingness, we discover the level of acceptance. Here we begin to take a new level of responsibility for ourselves and our choices in life. Harmony characterizes our living more than any other stage thus far such that we move away from a valuation of diversity to a claiming of unity. Prior to this stage exists the characteristic of finding happiness outside of oneself. Here, a participant in this stage comes to understand that one's happiness is really determined by what occurs within oneself. There is an ability in this stage to let go of determining the agenda for one's life and a calmness settles over the person who experiences this stage. There is no discrimination here just inclusion and with that inclusion comes the ability to tackle the problems of life with discipline and a lack of judgment around right or wrong. This level sees a problem and seeks a solution.

I realized that if I took such a position as the senior pastor of this particular church, I would either have a very difficult time pulling them along or might also get caught in the way they valued their world--a way that I had once known but did not prefer. They realized that I was not a fit for them and while we may have failed to accept each other, the lessons about the value of acceptance and inclusion served to make life richer for me.

So I wonder . . . how would you have answered those questions of the church? Do you find yourself living from acceptance and what does acceptance mean for you? The more I examine people who live from this level, the more I see glimpses of love, peace and joy and the more I covet that sort of living for us all! May we learn to truly accept each other and life as it comes to us! Amen.

Are We Willing?

I watched their family across the restaurant as I was dining one day with my friends. The parents were clearly low key kind of people but they were also disciplinarians. The love they shared for their children was evident. The fun they had with them and the joy that those two daughters brought to their parents' lives was unmistakable. When their meal was concluded, they sat around the table smiling and laughing with their friends and then I noticed the youngest daughter. She was pushing the bounds of her parents' patience. "Lisa Grace," said the mother, "sit down." The child ignored her. "Lisa Grace . . . what did I tell you? Sit down." Lisa Grace sat. A few seconds later, the little girl was swirling and twirling around her father with glee and before you knew it she was hiding under his chair. "Lisa, get off of the floor. We don't get on the floor in a restaurant." She ignored his command. Again the father spoke. "Lisa, get off of the floor." This time she obeyed.

Little Lisa wasn't doing anything horrible necessarily. Clearly, she was a good child. So why didn't she just follow her parents' instruction in the first place?

I realized, as I observed the interchange, that the parents were the authority. They were that line that gives us the rules for living, demonstrates the boundaries that exist for us, shows us how far we can go without harming ourselves. The parents' authority was well-intended. It was meant for Lisa Grace's good. But for whatever reason, she could not trust it. She had to push the bounds. She was unwilling to admit that her parents might know better than she. Then I realized that Lisa Grace is just human.

Her parents represent that Universal force of Life (that some of us call God.) That force wants to carry us to safety, to show us a way for our lives that is higher and better than what we can dream. Lisa Grace is like humanity. We push our boundaries. We force our ways. We ignore what we are told and sometimes we painfully learn the hard way that if we had just been willing to trust God and let life unfold as it would, ease would be a more predominant word in our vocabulary.

We have traversed the stages of force and we have discovered the power that exists in claiming both courage and neutrality, but the level of willingness is the most powerful that we have examined to date. Willingness is that stage that rockets us to new levels of power. Unlike neutrality where work is done with sufficiency, willingness strives for excellence. This is the level where self-esteem flourishes, where people are unafraid to try new things. Where, in the face of challenges, one is not afraid, but faces them head on knowing that Life will provide the appropriate path. The mantra of this path may well be, "it's all good!" It is all good, too! It is all good because the person that lives from willingness knows that God works for our good in every situation; that life does not mean ill for us, but blessing alone. Willing people bounce back from hardships, they operate out of compassion and thus they give back to society in ways that serve transform the larger picture of our lives as a society. They are introspective and always ready to improve themselves.

Lisa may be a bit too young yet to recognize the value of living from willingness. She will get there, I have no doubt and one day she may be having the same interaction with her children.

The question is will we get there? Are we willing? Do we insist on standing in the way of where life wants to carry us? Do we flail against God? Willingness is freedom if we let it be. May we indeed let it be!