“W-H-A-T I-S L-O-V-E?”
Good Morning Friends,
A woman named Helen Keller had completely lost her sight as a child. She was both deaf and blind. Just three months shy of her seventh birthday, she met a woman – a teacher named Anne Sullivan. Helen tells about their first meeting: “The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll… When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word, D-O-L-L. I was excited when I finally spelled the word myself. And I ran downstairs to show my mother.” Several days later, Miss Sullivan spilled cold water onto Helen’s hand and THEN spelled out the word W-A-T-E-R. In this way, Helen Keller learned to spell hundreds of words. Then one day, the story goes that Sullivan spelled out the word LOVE in Helen’s hand. Perplexed, Helen spelled back, “W-H-A-T I-S L-O-V-E?”
Scripture: For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:17-26 (NRSV)
As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
John 15:9-12 (NRSV)
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Matthew 25:34-40 (NRSV)
Message: Do you know someone who lives in the tension of being poor? Have you ever loved on someone who is poor? Anne Sullivan was raised in a poor house but Helen’s parents had money. I wonder what Jesus was experiencing the day love birthed Helen’s soul. I imagine that both Helen and Anne got to meet the divine miracle worker of Jesus that day. The beauty of the story is its drama, but also its example of a larger story. You see, the Christian faith is the most exciting love affair that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma that sustains the drama is not done and finished on the cross but lives on in the Spirit of the pivotal character of Christ in us. The divine comes alive in love shared with Jesus. For if we are to be called friends of Jesus we must follow his lead. We have been charged to join with Him. Our part has been cast to go out and continue the work Jesus started…to “do something” about the problem of sin and suffering. Oh we can misunderstand practically everything written about Christ and even how we apply it today, but this one thing will make sense and its meaning will be take us far beyond anything we can dream up on our own. It is love given away. And the whole action is the answer to a single central problem: Can you love Jesus in loving others and not claim it as your own? And that brings us back to Helen Keller’s question. What is love? Now you might think that as much as people sense the need of being loved and talk about being in love, that there would be an “easy” definition of what love is. Oh there is that famous passage about love from I Corinthians 13. But even that only tells us what love does and does not do. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails.” But friends, measuring love is one thing but being in love’s story line is The Thing. Maybe Helen Keller grasped the essence and permanence of this force. She is quoted as saying, “the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, and they must be felt with the heart.” But she also realized that once we love deeply it becomes part of us forever. Friends, Galatians tells us that love is part of the fruit of having God’s Spirit within us. When we walk close to God… when we deliberately seek to walk in His Spirit… then we can learn God’s kind of Love. His kind of love is different than what the world is used to because God’s kind of love is something you give… not something you receive.
Pray the fruit of God’s Spirit is within us changing us to do something extraordinary. Pray God’s creative Spirit works within our hearts and minds to convey the most important theme of life. Pray we take pity on those who have sight but cannot see. Pray we not refuse to do those good things we can do. Pray we focus less on getting love and more on giving it away. Pray we discover Jesus and the love story, the action adventure, the deep drama of life. Pray we have an intense longing to love. Pray Jesus knows us through our love of the poor.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 