Love From a Distance

LOVE FROM A DISTANCE

I John 4:18

There is no greater craving that drives a person’s life than love. Yet at the same time on a parallel existence there is no greater fear we have than not being loved.  Love defines everything we are, as well as what we are not.  Love withheld or love perverted can wound a person so deeply they feel their only recourse is an amputation of their own heart.  Love drives us to greater artistry, poetry, and humanity.  Love compels us to be drawn to one another, to sacrifice for another, and even receive hurt without retaliation.  The desire to be loved can either draw us into exposure or drive us into withdrawal; authentic personality or disingenuous posing.  The necessity to both give and receive love comes from a well deep inside our souls being forged into the image of God.  But from the time of our first act of adultery towards God, love has been forever elusive and often diminished into excessive emotions.  Therefore our most often recourse is to settle for some in between place distant from the heart exposure that would risk truth and sorrow. We settle for love from a distance.

We can see the results in our culture on the pages of every magazine as they call us into a more and more made-up existence far away from an internal fire of love, but instead draws us towards a shiny exterior, “faux-love.”  This love- distant culture is a place where men are exchanging intimacy for images; and women exchanging hearts for co-dependency.  The lures of games and gadgets, social networking and texting have replaced the hard, but loving work of relationships and intimacy.

Love from a distance is slaying the heart created for tenderness, care, and shamelessness; and it is reconstructing a façade made up of fragile egos, non-communicative people, and by default, shamefulness caused by our inability to genuinely love.

The perversions of love such as abuse, self-centeredness, and the idolization of self- advancement, which are nothing more than hate in costume, replace the beauty of love which can only be observed close up. The intricacies of one’s soul are very difficult to see from a distance and that which is not seen is impossible to specifically love. Therefore one is only left to manipulate their heart into hatred and shame, or shut down their heart completely.  Nothing could be further from God’s design than what is at the root of love’s perversion, fear! Fear is the gage by which the distance of love is measured; the more fear we have the greater the distance.  In contrast the less fear, the more the gap closes. So we find ourselves seemingly in a perpetual dance between intimacy and vulnerability defining everything we are and everything we are not.  

God’s love turns this awkward dance on its head by engaging us into His choreography. God is not fearful and thereby loves us without distance, but instead with embracing intimacy. In Jesus, our injured hearts become completely vulnerable to God because of His full and unhindered exposure of His own heart to us.  Without fear God comes with omniscience (complete knowledge) to cover every centimeter of distance between our hearts and His so that intimacy with Him is the normal. When intimate love with God is our normal, the dance between fear and desire become a constant gaze of grace. 

The perfect and fearless love of God back us down from judgment, both of others and self, bringing us to a place of fearless loving with our own lives. Intimacy is no longer defined by flesh but rather spirit. Love that is realized from God has its fulfillment not only in our hearts but through the expression of our love-filled hearts to others. Perfect love truly drives out fear because as the Apostle John says, fear has to do with punishment. Perfect love that finds it source from eternal grace eradicates all other perversions of love because love generated by grace is by nature selfless. The only delight to satisfy the craving of love our hearts desire to receive and give can only be found in the graceful love of God in Jesus.  The exposure of His love on the cross is the bridge that crosses the chasm from a distant love to intimacy that will forever transcend the fears of our flesh. 

Love up close from Christ,

Pastor Brad