But the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
and self-control.
There is no law (Jewish Law) against such things.

A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

(from the Book of Proverbs)

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, this world will know peace'

Jimi Hendrix'

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.

Leo Tolstoy

 Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.

Louise Erdrich

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Phillippians

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;

and to virtue knowledge;

and to knowledge temperance;

and to temperance patience;

and to patience godliness;

and to godliness brotherly kindness;

and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter

Do not neglect the gift that is in you.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

If we are people of faith we are living into the story of christianity.

We are living into the embodiment of what it means to be Christ.

We are living into the embodiment of God's love and compassion.

We are living into this experience of being faithful people.

And that's another cool thing our Senior Pastor told us.

PROGRAM LISTINGS & PROGRAM SCHEDULES

We're at the sixth sector of our exploration grid, and have begun (if barely) to sense the dynamic Nature of Authentic Love. We are way beyond kissy-kissy.

This thing is huge. Beautiful. Miraculous. Worthy, I think. And alive. This thing - love - is central to who we are as a people. In particular, it is central to our humanity, to our divinity, to our vitality, to our viability as individuals and communities.

True Love may yet prove to be the most powerful force in our universe. This particular claim is a hypothesis worth testing. Not of necessity! There is always faith. However, if we decide to execute this vital test, we'll need instruments proper, fititng and effective enough to endure such a task.

Imagine what those would be.

If this huge thing - love - is as powerful as claimed, it has to prove itself practical and superior in all relevant aspects of human activity, inter-spatial relationships, and universal harmony. It must. It cannot be mere stuffing along any spectrum from smooshy-mushy through resigned accomodation to corporeal cruelty, and yet it must of nature be endearing and sweet and enduring and strong. I anticipate this love will pass such a test.

Love is NOT rude.

NOT RUDE. That's clear. And yet! Hmm? It may well be that something we haven't quite articulated is causing us pause, something quicksilver-like about NOT RUDE, something slightly unsettling? Love is NOT (yes, NOT) rude! We know rude. We recognize rude. Don't we? We can't stand rude. One man's funny is another man's rude. One woman's honesty is another woman's mean and nasty. We know rude. This ought to be clear and easy, so why the hesitation?

Let's reframe this quicksilver concern so that love does not swivel about at our touch. We want to grasp it.

Here is one way we might render our concern:

Does love - in and of itself; in the true nature of its being - evolve? Not us! Love! Does love in and of itself evolve or has it always been the same 'thing' or the same collection of things (for want of clarity of language)?

In other words, this thing we call love, is it different in its nature or the same as it was in the time of Adam and Eve, at the time of King David, at the time of Mary or Martha or Esther or Delilah, at the time of Timothy or Titus or Peter or Paul, at the time of Martin Luther, in the era of Lewis or Spurgeon or Solomon, in the space and time of, well, pick whatever periods you prefer to compare then relate that to these times, your time, my time! Has love always been NOT rude?

Whatever that answer is, we need to a) understand how to personally access this powerhouse of a 'thing' - authentic love - and b) if that is accomplished, reckon what to do with it (intimacy being a given). Agreed?

Let's sift this silt.

Go ahead, share your findings!

Meanwhile, I will be searching out instruments, tools and situations suitable to test the power, dynamism, and longevity of this thing. Enjoy your shared nuggets then gather around this scoop. A basket of questions awaits us up ahead.

Like me, you may have experienced a sugar plantation: the process of planting, growing, harvesting, and producing sugar. It's quite something, isn't it? Lots of by-products too.

Like me, you may have experienced wheat fields and their factories: rice or corn or barley or oats of some kind or another, and have been verklempt at the memory of the refining process - from sweat to paycheck, from paying the bill to sparing a meal. Interesting! Wouldn't you say?

What about a goldmine? You too may have experienced or witnessed prospecting for gold, digging for gold, sluicing for gold, blasting for gold; its drudgery or the dredging processes, sifting through massive loads of unwanted blah for a few ounces - oh, dear God, make it pounds - of shining gold. Exciting, eh? Wealth!

Have you ever planted grapes? You may have! Or toured vineyards, or worked them, appreciated the necessary exactness of its nurturing for want of that perfect harvest! And been unaware of the stiffening of your pinky while you are being escorted through one or two or several of the world's finest wineries, or at the best pour, know the ping of tapped chalices, that slosh and sniff and slurp and sip of the finest quality, even perhaps gulping swallows only the joys of 'no concern' can afford! Quite something, isn't it? Posh!

Life! The sheer love of it! Give us more. Or do you say, not-so-much?

Where along the path of those well-honed processes do you ascertain you are most suited? Now slotted? Usually inserted?

Let's digress.

It's for a Pearl of Great Price. Our Lord - the Christ - Master of Mysteries, Paragon of Parables, spoke this in the presence of His disciples:

Parables! Oh, parables! Why speakest thou in parables, my Lord? And who can afford to buy such things when he or she has nothing and that nothing which he or she has will be taken away? Ouch! I know you love the poor, my Lord.

This kingdom. This kingdom. This kingdom. Hmm? You reign!

(We'll use goldmining as our 'provocative' sample - there is great value in gold!)

Thought Pattern A (The 13th Commandment): Thou shalt not, for if God intended humankind to have it, God would not have buried it; it would have been at easy reach. Stay clear or suffer consequences. [No Gold.]

Thought Pattern B (The Sufferer's Reward): Only those willing to suffer for gain will win its lasting rewards. Suffering produces holiness. God favors sufferers. [Much Gold. Riches untold. Suffer more.]

Thought Pattern C (The Porknocker's Syndrome): A fair days work for a fair days pay. Riches never got a soul into heaven. You keep the gold. My reward is up there. [Jewels for my crown.]

Toward which of these so-called 'spiritual' patterns of thought are you most likely to gravitate, chapter and verse at the tip of your tongue? Or is it innie-minnie-mynnie-moe while standing at the doors of circumstance?

It might well be we are totally unaware of how subtly we are accessing these patterns, presuming we're following God's preferred way. So, are we? This is not an indictment, it is a question. Perhaps a leading question. Are we?

Having created each of us so magnifciently, so brilliantly, so wondrously, having sacrificed so much for us, would our God require us to operate this miserly, in such a belittling and derogatory manner?

Would God, Our Creator, Our Redeemer, this Almighty God who loves us mock us or relegate us to such ways?

Maybe this pattern of renewal will become clearer in due course, but this is for sure, Our God is not small.

And this love is not rude at all.

Love is not rude.

It is worth clarifying that while we are using this passage as a template for our grid, we should not ignore to whom the original letter was sent and for what purpose. You may be well rewarded verifying for yourselves. Digest it, and discern whether the gathered group was, as reported, rude in all manner of ways. Here is a portion of that exortation, which will come in handy along our explorative journey.

Familiar? Nevertheless, we are not discussing this passage, we are exploring love, and at this sector: love is not rude.

If we let goldmining be our example, our metaphor for reaching gold, then rudeness is the junk, the dirt, the rocks and stones, the slush blocking the gold miner from his wealth and power. Love is the drill. All that mock, all that petty stuff, blasted away. Gone! How hard would it be to learn how to use this drill? Love.

What if - what if - we begin to experience our love in this very way? What if we take some time (this would be a special time, I assure you, an awesome time) to appreciate God's Love, and in recognition of God's unending love, note also how well it is that God's Love Is Not Rude! What if we experience that aspect of God's love. Pause to experience it. See if your eyes don't begin to open in newer ways. Feel if your strength gets a particular boost! You'll hear like you've not heard before. You'll begin to taste like you hadn't tasted before - a taste of life! Experience God's love in this manner, a love for you that is not rude.

Yes, love is not rude. This is not a dishonest love; it is well-behaved. It is neither offensive nor indelicate, tasteless nor ill-mannered. It is neither brash nor insolent for any reason. it is an enriching love, a love sensitive to the sensibilities of others, a love that lets others shine. It is liberating. Isn't it awesome to discover 'love is not . . . rude?'

Being fully functional and wholly human!

Love . . .

"Love is an active, accountable, responsible 'being' that makes decisions reflective of its authentic self."

More than ever before there is coffee galore, practically around every corner in these parts, coffee of every blend and flavor and many brands. A measured amount per day, I am told, has life-saving beneifits. Still I am yet to become a coffee drinker, much less a connoisseur, but from time to time I have tasted some. I ought to change my mind.

One of my clients who drinks a cup every day confessed he wouldn't know the taste of one coffee from another, "They all taste the same to me," he said. I was about to agree when he added, "It's like wine, no difference." I held my tongue and smiled.

You see, not so long ago another client took me to dinner at one of our hosh-posh evening restaurants. We have quite a few in these parts. I had thought I had expereinced them all. Not this one. It was a very fine evening all around.

To open things up, the immaculate server brought three choiced bottles of wine to be sampled. Mine was the honor. After each sample, the palate is duly cleansed for the pleasures of the newer sample. There was a story for each bottle. My ears were satisfied. A lovely evening.

"That one," I said.

I didn't want to spoil the evening by pronouncing it in correctly. "It's the top of the line. Our best!" Our server said. I almost choked, and was full ready to shout, Oh dear, no, I like that other one just as well, when my client's smile and confession relieved me.

"That's my favorite too," he said. "I was hoping this would be the one you'd like best."

It was a very fine evening, as I said.

Slyly, in that hosh-posh kind of a slippery way, they ushered the bill from my sight, but I caught a glimpse of the price. I would've choked again, but manners kept me. Oh dear! I murmured repeatedly beneath my breath. I must inveestigate where I am being invited before offering acceptance. I know; it's my pride. I've got a lot of self-work to do.

The following day there was a gentle knock on my door. I opened. Hand delivered. A bottle of that fine wine. One accepts it the way one accepts a new born baby. No words suffice.

Love is like fine wine. It does you much more to ready the palate, to savor the taste, to let it settle, to let it reside. There is absolutely no reason to rush it. Absolutely none.

If a good cook prepares a great meal and you stuff it down then pour soda behind it, you have destroyed the meal, you have trampled upon the cook's wonder, you missed the whole matter. Life flushed down the drain!

Love like a welcomed diner. Love like a wine connoisseur. You'll experience its power.

Everybody poops. Very few are served fine wine.

You are served!

"Knowledge that takes you not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance." Elif Shafak.

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Something To Consider

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You are

What a PRIVILEGE!