Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

• Colossians 3:12-14

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

• 1 John 4:16-18

“The sleepless nights, the daily fights
The quick toboggan when you reach the heights
I miss the kisses and I miss the bites
I wish I were in love again
The broken dates, the endless waits
The lovely loving and the hateful hates
The conversation with the flying plates
I wish I were in love again

No more pain, no more strain
Now I’m sane, but I would rather be punch-drunk

The pulled out fur of cat and cur
The fine mis-mating of a him and her
I’ve learned my lesson but I wish I were in love again
The furtive sigh, the blackened eye
The words, “I’ll love you ’til the day I die”
The self-deception that believes the lie
I wish I were in love again
When love congeals it soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals
The double-crossing of a pair of heels
I wish I were in love again

No more pain, no more strain
Now I’m sane, but I would rather be punch-drunk

Believe me, sir, I much prefer
The classic battle of a him and her
I don’t like quiet and I wish I were in love again
In love again
In love again”

• Lorenz Hart, I Wish I Were in Love Again

Okay, of the love songs that could easily be turned into worship songs, this one is not on the list.  So, why write about it?

We want that perfect love.  Something in our DNA or is this RNA?  We were made to love, but we keep seeking that love that does not involve the hateful hates and flying plates.

If you really get down to it, our desire to find true love, perfect love, whatever, is proof that God breathed life into us.  The animal world has their courtship rituals, but mankind spends a lot of time brooding over it.

Maybe that is our problem.  If we spent time learning each other’s likes and dislikes, we might not get to the blackened eye or the furtive sigh.

But in this Rodgers and Hart classic, the lyricist has given up on perfect love.  He will settle for the negative just to fill that void that love fills.  Yet, the only pure, perfect fit for that void is Jesus Christ.

There is so much talk about what Heaven will be like.  We know that Jesus Christ will marry the church and all of us believers make up the church.

Let us think of a love without hateful hates and flying plates.  Let’s think of a love without furtive sighs and blackened eyes.  Let us think of that emptiness that we have without love being perfectly filled for eternity.

Then the rest of it might not matter.  It is already better than anything we have experienced on earth.  So, why wouldn’t the rest of it be beyond our wildest imaginations?

Here are Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney singing I Wish I Were in Love Again. Rodgers and Hart wrote a lot of material to go in this category.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.