Donning Love

At once people confront this life with fear and audacity, with reluctance—great hesitation—and zealousness—an unquenchable fervor. At once I fear pain and embrace vulnerability; at once I curse and praise, hate and love, dispense grace and stifle it, sin and serve, speak and am silent, mourn and rejoice, celebrate and grieve; at once I am dark and light, holy and imperfect, saved and disobedient.

 

All these I feel or am. Walt Whitman said that, in “Song of Myself,” and it was a beautiful thing to say, and—for me and those words above—it is a true thing to say. All these I feel or am. We are walking paradoxes, beautiful catastrophes; we are searchers, wanderers; we are seekers and rarely finders; we are lovers; we are loved; we are human beings.

 

Through this confusion, the eternal paradox of the human being, in all of her complexities, in her lying and honesty, love and hate, sin and service, through this chaotic darkness there comes a great Light—a Light who is the Truth in the form of a human, who is the Son of God and the Son of Man, who is Alpha and Omega. This Truth brings me hope and light. It spurs me to cast away my sin and don purity—holiness for His name’s sake.

Today, above all days, believers of Jesus Christ and His Father YHWH, believers of the Holy Spirit and the cross, believers of the Trinity and of flawless grace, today, above all days, we should focus on the love of God; more than ever, we should focus on the fact that, truly, God Himself is love. God is love.

 

A problem I have with the church is this: more often we focus on the cross and not the resurrection; more often we dwell on the sin and not the grace; more often we fester in the guilt and not the freedom; more often we think of what we did wrong and not what He has done right. If you are not a Christian, and you are reading this (which, I hope to all hope that there, indeed, are non-believers reading this entry), I apologize on behalf of the church for not always projecting the correct message: life is love—nothing more, nothing less. Life is Jesus Christ—love incarnate. Life is love.

 

Today, Jesus Christ is risen. With that truth, let us rejoice; let us love.