Rick Land & Russ Tapp: Blog

The Epistle reading this week is the LOVE chapter. I am no cynic, just weary of all that duplicity. Paul, in his usual schizophrenic style discusses the issue of love within the context of some church caught up in the confusion of "speaking in tongues".  He attempts to use this format to issue a declaration that love is far more important than "tongues" et al.  I have seen a bit of this neurotic behavior within the walls of some "charismatic" congregations.  This issue of glossalalia has divided and destroyed countless congregations and denominations. I find it comical that Paul waxes eloquent about the virtues of love - it is a noble thought and ideal.  But all humanity has a dark side, a mysterous side that defies our ability to understand our own individual "secret" natures.  Occasionally this side of us will rear it's ugly head. I know one thing - as a human being , I am not capable of loving everything, all the time and everywhere - it is not possible. It is intellectually dishonest for Paul to proclaim high and lofty goals then at the latter portion of his rant say that "we look through a glass darkly" - I know what he means. We cannot possibly know the true heart of another individual. we cannot possibly know the depths of their despair, personal history or the basic context of their personal life experience.  We all judge everything by what we see on the surface. God is energy and light and imperceptible and all of creation is connected in the form of atoms, particulate, and miniscule positive and negative charges. The basic study of physics reveals that all of life and matter is made up of the same material in different forms, just like humanity. We are all the same under our outer skin. All of our internal organs are in the same place.  Male or female - we are the same.  Yet we all contain completely individual and unique thoughts, behavior, characteristics, personalities and unknowable inner motivations and inclinations.  If I truly love someone - it will take years of personal observation to understand them on a very limited scale. Even then, I may be in for surprises - and I may surprise them and myself at my own "unknowable" proclivities! It's just human nature.  

So how are we to love.  How do we find a love that is above the childishness of those who (figuratively) use a "hidden" language to impress, annoy and manipulate vulnerable people?

Perhaps the answer is right in front of our eyes... love means being annoyed, disillusioned, irritated, gullible, abused, heartbroken, cynical and just downright weary.  amen  rdl