Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 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.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

• 1 John 4:13-21

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, 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, always perseveres.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

• John 15:13

“[Verse 1]
Falling in love with love is falling for make-believe
Falling in love with love is playing the fool
Caring too much is such a juvenile fancy
Learning to trust is just for the children in school

[Verse 2]
I fell in love with love one night when the moon was full
I was unwise with eyes unable to see
I fell in love with love with love everlasting
But love fell out with me

[Verse 3]
I fell in love with love one night when the moon was full
I was unwise with eyes unable to see
I fell in love with love with love everlasting
But love fell out
Yes, love fell out
Yes, love fell out
With me”

• Lorenz Hart, Falling in Love with Love

I heard this song played on the Sleep Noise channel.  No lyrics, just soft piano music.  I found myself singing what I remembered of the lyrics.  The song was part of the Rodgers and Hart musical, The Boys from Syracuse (1938).

I have had this one on the back burner for some time.  I could go so many directions.

I once heard a pastor say that only a Christian can understand love.  Love in the true sense?  Yes.

But unbelievers would get very upset with you.  They think they know love better than a Christian.  They think when love is free of restrictions like celibacy and such, then you have better love.

But Christian love does not need the physical, not even a kiss or a hug.

Jesus gave up His life so that we could be called children of God.  He told His disciples, and in turn all of us, that for us to be saved, we must carry our cross.  Love is a sacrificial thing.

Too many people who think they know love only know what they get out of love.  Then, the others are cat people. …

Okay, in some ways cats can show love in return.

But you can pour a lot of love into a child and then they turn away and could care less about you, unless you have money and they still won’t love you.  They will check the obits on a weekly basis.  When they find your name, you can guarantee that they’ll be at the memorial service pretending they had talked to you on the phone every day until the day you died.

God loved the world, according to John 3:16.  Just think of the billions, maybe nearly one hundred billion people that have rejected that love.

But Christians are told to love one another.  That is Christ’s commandment to us.  Nothing physical.  It is helping the poor with no thought of any reciprocation.  Sometimes when you are helping people and someone says “Thank you” you are shocked by it.

Some of the best “love years” – to make up a phrase – that my wife and I ever had were among the last twenty of her life.  Did we roll around on the bed oiling each other down?  No.  We tried to squeeze a hug in at appropriate moments.  We kissed at appropriate moments.  But when she fell and could not get up…  She probably could get up, but she panicked.  I invented new techniques in using leverage to pick her up.  I had tried all the techniques in the textbooks.  So, the ones I used had to be new inventions.  Those last twenty years were the empty nest years.  It was just us two, but we rarely fought, rarely disagreed.  We just took in every moment not knowing if it would be our last.

And I was still thinking of the next surgery and the hard work in recovery and rehab so that she would get better.  But in the meantime, my wife loved everyone that way.  She smiled.  She never let people know she was in pain (except for me).

You might look at that and think that it was not fun.  In the 1 Corinthians 13 list of things that love is, does fun appear anywhere?

When you fall in love with love, you are just like what the song says.  It’s make believe, a juvenile fancy, you’re playing the fool.

Love never fails, but that is God’s love that never fails.

The divorce rate is as high as it is because God’s love was not in the picture. At least in a lot of cases. Christians can make mistakes too.

I have known unbelievers that had long married lives, but love became possession in some cases.  Love became abuse and not knowing how to get out of it in other cases.  And in many cases, the spark was gone, but they were not going to admit they made a mistake.

But the way that the song ends is not how love ends with God.  He keeps on loving those who worship Him and love Him back.  That is part of what believing in Jesus is, loving God in return by trusting His Son with your life.

Here is Frank Sinatra singing Falling in Love with Love.

The only way to fall in love with love everlasting is to love God.  Everything else will fade away.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.