Peace Himself Give

Careful what you wish for…

2 Thessalonians 3:16

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.

Peace by all means.

There are two groups of people fighting against each other, destroying property and killing.  It looks as though they will never get along with each other and the fighting won’t end, the warring won’t stop, until one group has completely annihilated the other.  We could say that there will be no peace until one side is dead.  But, is that peace?  Or is it merely the cessation of fighting?

A third group might get involved in the fight, before that terminally decisive end, and try to find a way to bring about a cease-fire without the annihilation of a people.  That third group will come into the fight with their own weapons and tools, their own fighting, and beat the two groups into submission, forcing them to make peace with one another.  But – is this really peace?  Or is it merely the putting down of guns?

If peace is defined by the absence of war, then peace is only a mediocre, lukewarm kind of state, with nothing truly noble in it.  It would be akin to defining the absence of hate as apathy.  The absence of love can also be defined as apathy.  Do we want an apathetic world?

I’ve often thought that the cooling down of violence in Ireland has not been brought about by wondrous peacemakers and and a true acceptance of each other’s differences, a true love of one another.  No.  I think that the growing “peace” in Ireland is a result of cultural and religious apathy.  The economic situation in Ireland has improved, and, so, people are enjoying more jobs and more money.  The focus is on the increased availability of wealth and the things that it can do – not on love of neighbor.  If an Irishman doesn’t have to compete with his neighbor over a limited number of jobs or resources, then there’s no reason to fight.  Because, really, the reason for the violence wasn’t so much cultural or religious – it was always about finances.  The great cause for which the young willingly gave their lives, for which countless civilians were killed – this great cause was not of the heart, or of the soul, or even of the mind, it was always of the wallet.

And it is easy to think (rather cynically, I admit) the same about every war in every region, across the world, throughout history.  If the belly is full and the senses are sufficiently entertained, then the people are at peace.  It’s the “bread and circus” mentality of life.  We can see the truth of it when we examine the unrest caused by the desperation of the poor or the reckless boredom of the rich – but it is much more difficult to see when we are in the midst of this bread and circus peace.

We, of the middle class, who can pay our budget-wise bills without worry and still have enough for big-screen TVs, take out, and twice yearly vacations, with the occasional bungee jump and impulse purchase thrown in – we have no cause to amass a militia and start a war.  Hungry, desperately poor people who are that way because they are being seriously oppressed may have cause to start war – but no one else.  The crazy people in civilized countries who do that sort of thing are, well, crazy.  They’re either zealous nuts who believe in the rapture, or Armageddon, or seven virgins in Paradise, or some other superstitious drivel like that.  Or, they are ruthless power mongers, monstrous villains, bent on world domination.  Or they are seriously mentally ill.  Perhaps they are combination of all three.  If only someone could calm them down by enlightening them away from religion, getting them to talk to a trained therapist, or making sure that they are well medicated, then, maybe, we could have peace.  Make sure everyone has enough to eat and that premium cable channels, antidepressants and cosmetic surgery are available to everyone and then we will live in a civilized and peaceful world.  [Insert your sarcastic and cynical take here.  Well, actually, at the bottom of this post.]

The problem is, of course, that human beings will always long for something more.  Not just more food, more money, more pleasure, and more fun – but also more… How many humans have asked themselves, and anyone listening, the timeless question: “Is this all there is?”  Not, “is this all the chicken there is?” or “is this all the bonus pay?” or “is this all the orgasm?” or “is this all the tequila?” or “is this all the comedy?”  Well, yes, people ask those questions, too.  But, these are finite things and, so, naturally, they are limited in supply.  They are also limited in results.  Chicken, bonuses, orgasms, tequila, and comedic acts can only do so much for the human person.  The purpose of life is not to amass as much as possible so that there are no gaps or lapses.  No, in fact, if one is able to live one’s life this way, then one will always be stuffed and entertained and, therefore, oblivious to want.  And the absence of want is not joy.  The absence of want is not plenty.

When I was little (and sometimes still, now) I would ask my father for something by saying that I wanted or would like it.  To which he would respond with two alternate phrases: “Now you know what it’s like to want,” and, “It’s good to want.”  I always thought he was just being annoying for the fun of pushing my buttons.  And, yes, in a way, he was.  But, he was also right.  If I had everything that I ever wanted before I could even ask for it – before I even knew that I wanted it – then I wouldn’t be happy.  I would be surviving very easily and perpetually entertained, but I wouldn’t know satisfaction and I wouldn’t know joy.

Now, I’m not saying that the poor are blessed because they wake up every morning with hungry stomachs and go to bed every night with their stomachs still wanting.  No.  But, when anyone wakes up with a hungry stomach, that first bite of food is extra delicious, isn’t it?  In strictly financial terms, a good or service gains no appreciation in value if there is an overabundance of supply of that good or service.  In fact, if supply is low and demand is high, then that is good or service has great value.  Appreciation grows when there is want.  So, yes, it was good for me, as a child, to want something to eat or to want a toy – for, then, my appreciation for that food and that toy grew.

What am I trying to say with all of this?…  What am I trying to say with all of this…?  The very fact that we can imagine the infinite opens up our longing for it.  Finite goods and services – no matter how wanted or how plentifully received – can not give us the ultimate fullness of joy.  It is good to feed the body.  And it is good to feed the mind.  And it is also very good to feed the heart and soul.  Material things aren’t bad.  In truth, material things are good.  But… What do we do with them?  If we use material things to numb us to the fullness of reality – to blind and deafen us to spiritual things – then we are making very bad choices.  We’re getting it all wrong.  Think of the arrogance, the patronizing condescension of those high and mighty rulers who planned bread and circus to keep their people “at peace.”  Do we really think that God is like one of them?  He hears us wishing and praying for material things, for material comforts and material pleasures, and He does not turn away in hoity-toity disgust.  No, God understands our material needs – better than we even do ourselves.  God does not want a child to starve to death.  God sees the overfeeding of one child’s belly and the under feeding of another’s, and the solution to the problem should be obvious to us.  But it’s not.  Because we’re blinded by bread and circus.  God wants to give us good things and for us to use those good things well in loving service to ourselves and to our neighbors, to all of our fellow human beings.  And God also knows that the best thing is no thing.  God did not make us solely for the material.  God also made us for the spiritual, for the eternal and the infinite.  God made us for… God.

God wants us to be fully satisfied and fully joyful – and God knows bread and circus won’t cut it.  God hears us pray for peace and knows that true peace is not merely the absence of wanting.  Sometimes, in order for us to know true peace we have to have our eyes and ears opened wide, opened wide with wanting, with sorrow and grief.  It is in the stillness and the silence that we are able to be open and receive the infinite goodness that God is pouring down on to us.  If we are too stuffed and occupied here and now on this earth, we will never know this earth for the fullness of what it is – we will never know ourselves or one another for the fullness that we are – we will never know what it truly is to be fully human and fully alive.  God will grant us peace… peace by all means.

© 2014 Christina Chase

Good Stewards of the Manifold

The one thing of which you’ll never run out.

1 Peter 4:10                                                                   

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

We are finite creatures living in the limits of space time.  We can only eat so much, only move so much, and only own so much.  No more.  But… How much can we love?

It seems that even in our ability to love there is a limit.  We can love our family and our friends – but not our enemies.  And yet, Christians are told precisely to do that.  We can love our loved ones with our whole selves, as we may say – but, yet, we do not give of ourselves completely, for we believe that we must keep something in reserve for ourselves.  If we have nothing for ourselves, what do we have to give?  And yet, Christians are told to give the entirety of their beings, the entirety of their lives, to God and so, also, to the loving service of our fellow human beings.  To love the Lord, our God, with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, with all of our strength, and with all of our souls, is to hold absolutely nothing in reserve for ourselves.  But, surely, if we do that, we won’t be able to survive, right?

The wonder and beauty of love is that it is unlimited.  Though we are, most certainly, limited creatures with limited abilities, true love, real love, is purely of God – who is perfectly unlimited.  Because of our flawed nature, we can only open ourselves up so much to the reception of God’s love, which is always and everywhere pouring relentlessly upon everyone.  But, even just a little bit of perfection goes a long way.  It depends upon whether or not we are truly allowing, with the best of our abilities, God’s love to love us.  To move us.  To shape us.  To feed us.  To heal us.  To guide us and guard us.  To revolutionize us.  God’s love is not something that we can own or even hold onto.  God’s love, like the Holy Spirit, flows without ceasing.  You can take a cup of water out of a stream, but, if you do so, that water is no longer a stream.  If we hold on too tightly to the feeling of lovingness, it ceases to be loving.

I would like to feel always the warmth and peace that floods me in the rare moments of deep and grace filled prayer.  However, the moment that I recognize the “feeling” and desire to keep it, the warmth and peace changes into a mere sensation and not the actual goodness of deep prayer itself.  I’ve stolen water from the stream, if you will, and am disappointed to look down into my cup and realize that the stream is not in there.  So, too, with love.  When I love someone – (no, wait, when I am loving someone, for love is not something passive with which I should identify my relationships with certain people, so let me make it clear that love is a verb).  When I am loving someone, God’s love is being received by me and flowing through me to the other.  Love is eternal, so there is no stopping.  Love is infinite, so there is no damming up.

This is why forgiveness is key in Christianity – because Christianity is most fully and completely about the receiving and giving of God’s love.  If someone hurts us, we become less willing to engage in loving that person – and that’s a dam in the flow of divine love.  Only forgiveness can break down the dam and restore the stream.  Perhaps, it’s almost as though the hurt caused by the other leads us to think that we need more of God’s love for ourselves in order to make up for that hurt.  But, of course, we can never receive more of God’s love.  There is only one quantity of God’s love that we are given: all of it.  This is why Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, surrenders his life completely on the Cross.  We are to understand through his sacrifice, and to be reminded by every image of a crucifix, how much God loves us.  Completely.  As I told my nephews when they were very little, Jesus on the Cross is God’s way of telling us, “I love you thiiiis much” – and his hands hold no limit, they are pointing out infinitely.  Our hands, too, must hold no limit, for, if we are truly to be loving, then we must give without ceasing.  It is the flow of love that heals us, that binds every wound, and that gives us the joy and peace that mere survival cannot give.  It is only through the flow of loving that we are fully human, fully alive – that we are fulfilled as the beings that we eternally are: images of God.

May all of us open our minds and our hearts to receive the love of God and, by so receiving, let us all be good stewards and give fully, wholeheartedly, of what we are being given.  Let us give fully to God and not let the fear of the unknown or the limits of mere practicality impede the gift.  This is how it should be.  If what we call love is to really be love, then there can be nothing partial or part-time about it – no stops, no dams.  By allowing God’s love to flow, we become beings who are loving all of God’s Creation, loving every thing, tiny or gargantuan, and loving everyone – because God does.

 

© Christina Chase 2014

All Rights Reserved

Giveth of His Bread

Pureness of heart…

Proverbs 22:9, 11

He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor.

He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend.

After 40 years of living, I finally feel like I’m starting to come into my own.  What does that mean?  It means that I have discovered my own particular passion, my own particular talent, and my own particular voice.  Not my own because I have created it for myself or given it to myself, and not my own because I possess it as a kind of thing – but, rather, my own because this passion, talent, and voice has been given uniquely to me and I, recognizing the gift, am finally allowing myself to receive it.  Perhaps, I have learned to be more humble and to accept the goodness of the gift – even if it doesn’t meet the height of my expectations.

For, of course, I want to be on fire, masterful, and highly desirable to others.  I am burning – but with a deeper heat, like a coal glowing more intensely, slowly.  I am honing my craft – though my blade be but flint, I am working its edge.  And I am inspiring – perhaps this is the most difficult fact of my life to accept.  Every writer wants, naturally, to have an influence on others with his or her words.  I have already done that on a very small, individual scale, inspiring one person to one particular thought.  This is not how I dreamed of changing the world… but, perhaps, this is exactly how the world does get changed.  And what I need to remember, and am beginning to accept fully, is that my own heart is as inspirational as the way I use words.  In fact… it is my heart that does the inspiring – my words merely express my heart.

And when my words truly express my heart, the deepest core of my being, then they are my true voice, the product of my true talent, the reason for my true passion.  Excelling at this doesn’t mean that I will become a best-selling author.  It’s great to aim high and shoot for the moon, but not at the expense of the pureness of my heart.  Of course… I can see this as a way of copping out, my little exit clause that gets me out of serious and hard work.  I could just say, “Oh, the world won’t understand my authenticity because I am too pure and too deep for it – but that’s okay, for it’s better to be a saint in obscurity than a sinner on the public stage, so I will remain unedited in the shadows” and blah blah blah, all la-ti-da like that.  This is exactly the understanding that I am coming to: I need to seriously work on my craft, put in the hours, make hard decisions, and then brave the world’s opinions – and my focus needs to be, not only on the style of my words, but also, most essentially, on the truth of my words.  If I am not clean of heart, then I will not glimpse the divine.  And what, then, is my life?  For “… the life of man is the vision of God.”[1]

My Maker, the Creator and Master of the universe, has envisioned my life in a particular and brilliant way and has given me the passion, talent, and voice to fulfill that vision.  Will I?  Or will I waste the time given to me looking for something else?

Most of the time, I feel like I have already wasted 25 years.  In high school, I knew that I wanted to be a writer – I knew that I am supposed to be a writer – and I was offered tools to help me toward that end.  But I did not use them as I should have.  Was it laziness that held me back or sheer procrastination?  I know that I have a tendency toward both.  Or was it perfectionism (a grave type of pride from which I suffer) and subsequent fear that made me dither and drag my feet, afraid that I would not be as good as I wanted to be?

My hope is that I simply wasn’t ready back then.  I wasn’t ready back then because my heart was unclean and I didn’t know the truth of who I am.  Back then, my passion was to use beautiful words to share profitable stories and to create my own immortality that way.  I wanted my voice to be famous and to receive the crowd’s praise as they valued my work as important.  Now, I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t want that anymore.  But, what I desire now is a singleness of purpose – a single-heartedness – an exquisitely deep gleaning of myself, to bring forth what is good and true and beautiful in me, God-given, and share it with my fellow human beings.  I wish that I had used the time up until this point to, at least, fine-tune my vocabulary, grammar, and ability to hold an audience.  That would’ve been helpful to me right now.  But, I am here and I’m serious about getting all of it right – not perfect, not award-winning – but right, in that the person who my Maker envisioned is fulfilled.

Although I had always thought that I have a high self-esteem, I’m beginning to see my past self evaluation as vanity.  Truly in vain.  Now… now that I have opened up myself, my life, to see the fullness of who I am, the fullness of reality, and am devoted to being fully human, fully alive, now I understand how I am beautiful and why I am talented.  Only the pureness of my heart yields forth a bountiful eye and grace of voice.

 

© Christina Chase 2014

All Rights Reserved

---

[1] St. Irenaeus

And Every Tree Therein

By the one who has created me, am I fulfilled.

Isaiah 44:23-24

Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.

Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

I did not make this beautiful Maple tree that stands amid the grasses, its secret roots buried in the earth, its winsome branches flourishing toward the sky.  Nor do I make my home among its limbs, nor take my sustenance from its bark, nor slake my heated body within its shade.  I gaze upon the loveliness of the tree, delighting in its shape and form and the myriad intricacies of its lush and verdant leafing, its dark and curving limbs sublime.

Perhaps I am the one who first caught it, as a seed, as it flew downward upon its single wing from the parent tree.  Round and round it whirled, spinning like a dervish, mindless of its surroundings, its beauty embryonic, waiting to unfold.  Perhaps I am the one who split open the earth with my fingers and tucked in the Maple seed, hoping for and envisioning the great unfurling growth to come.  Perhaps, then, I feel a relationship, sense an ownership of this tree that has taken root in the spot that I chose.  But, the tree is not owned, regardless of whatever documents or boundaries humans may draw up.  The tree does not relate to me as owner, friend, or kin and owes me absolutely nothing.  The parent tree itself has no further relationship, no more than any growing thing has with another.  For neither the parent nor I brought the Maple into being.

This tree was first envisioned, its growth first optimistically planned, its beauty first enjoyed, by none other than the one who set the sun to shine and every star in the heavens.  With a silent word and a motionless movement, this tree, those grasses, that cloud, these birds, this sky, this earth, and I were created from nothing; a spatial matter allowed to exist because it was willed to be, unfolding from density to diversity through the eons of newly recognized time, stopping for nothing and nobody.  Until the day that I can see this tree is here.  And as I gaze upon its loveliness and delight in the wonder of its dark and curving, its green and fluttering, its strong and delicate, its deep and reaching shape and form, time is not recognized nor are the boundaries and definitions that we humans draw up.  There is beauty here, and life.  A past, a present, and a future, here in this now that is eternal in this clear moment of seeing, this moment of awe.

I did not make you, beautiful tree.  You were created by the one who is uncreated and your fulfillment is in your being just as you were created to be.  Nothing less and nothing more will bring you greater worth.  Your flesh may or may not be used for building shelter or burning heat; your flowing blood may or may not be sucked up, or drawn out and boiled down, for sweet eating.  Yet, you will be you.  Whether symmetrical or crooked by the situation of your growing, you were chosen to exist – you were loved into being by Being and, so, you are always beautiful in the very truth of your existence.  Should I never have seen you, should no human eyes ever have rested upon your living form, your life would have been beheld by the Ever Living One, the one who delights most in you, and, therefore, you will always be fulfilled.  For trees have not the legs with which to run away from the truth, nor the lips with which to deny reality… you are your endless song of praise and thanksgiving.

Not like me.  With mind to wander and will to obscure, I wrench my roots from out of love and pull down my branches lest they reach for the unreachable.  I claim that I am a realist, my feet firmly on the ground without my head in the clouds – but I am a fool.  The truth is given me, ultimate reality is here – yet I too often refuse to receive, refuse to see, what is eternal, what is unseeable, what is the beauty of this tree.

 

© Christina Chase

All Rights Reserved

The LORD Hath

Psalms 6:9

The LORD hath heard my supplication; the LORD will receive my prayer.

We send a thought into the universe

and believe the higher power receives the transmission

and gives us back what we send out.

Am I then a frequency?

Bouncing off of poles and satellites,

a ricochet of myriad messages in waves of pulse

are we, creatures with minds?

Creatures of minds… but the mind a series of synaptic flashes

that are no flashes of brilliance, really, but, rather,

biological secretions of fluids and chemicals in the brain;

mechanical transfers of the parts of life, life to life being merely multiplication: the universe?

Energy is the movement of matter?  Or is matter no matter, but actually energy?

And where does the moving begin?  Like a billiard ball struck by a cue that

strikes another ball and another, atomic particles divide and scatter because…

Because…?

There is an unmoved mover that is not the universe.

There is an uncaused cause that is not matter-ial, yet is the opposite of immaterial.

Do I set the things of my life in motion?

Do a butterfly’s wings cause a monsoon?

Yet where did it all begin?

Infinite universes of infinite matter with infinite possibilities in parallel?

Am I the butterfly?  Or am I the petal borne on the wind?

Or… beyond my thoughts and imaginings… beyond myself…

beyond my flesh and blood, beyond all matter and detectable energy…

am I being loved….

 

Every thought and imagining,

every person, every particle,

every body of mind and heart and strength is

being loved….

It is we who receive.

And every hope, every fear, every prayer, every moment,

is being loved….

Does an element cease to be an element when it is compounded?

Does the sky cease to be the sky on a mountaintop

or in a cave?  Is the universe no less the universe in a grave?

What is in and throughout, what is above and below and all through is

being loved….

How can a thought be lost when it is being loved?

How can a supplication be unheard when it is being loved?

How can an offering not be accepted when it is being loved?

How can a spurning not be forgiven when it is being loved?

How can the feet run away from the feet, how can the lips kiss the lips,

how – unless we shut off love?

The bowl in the pouring rain is overflowing full –

unless it is turned upside down.

Before the uncreated creator I stand, I kneel, I lay me down,

with the begging bowl of my heart open and upright, ready to be full,

for I am being loved….

 

I am not a beacon or a signal and the universe is not my maker,

for I am not crafted parts manipulated into a sum to immaterially transmit into

the hum of the universe for the sake of matter-ial return.  I am

being loved….

 

The question is – am I allowing myself to be loved?

have I shut off love or am I open?  have I turned upside down in this matter-ial world?

I am being loved – am I being loving?

Love is the Absolute Truth and only error denies Love.

Only willfully relentless error chops off the feet and burns off the lips

and deludes the mind with immaterial singing and dancing.

© 2014 Christina Chase

All Rights Reserved

Every Man That Hath This Hope

Does hope purify?

1 John 3:3

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Dozens of people have been murdered in the United States, in the last 18 months, by young men on killing rampages.  When teenage boys killed their fellow students at a high school in Colorado in 1999, our country was shocked and appalled.  But, this wasn’t the first mass killing in a school.  And it wouldn’t be the last.  About a year and a half ago, the murders of little children at Sandy Hook Elementary terrified and enraged us again.  Just this week, a killer shot and murdered a student and shot a teacher at a school in Oregon, and then ended up dead himself.  There seems to be an epidemic.  It’s even worse than you might remember – take a look at this timeline starting from 1984: http://timelines.latimes.com/deadliest-shooting-rampages/  Men from the ages of 55 to 11, most of them under 30, have made the decision to seek out human beings and kill them, arming themselves for the rampage, wanting to destroy their lives.  Sometimes they commit suicide directly.  Sometimes it’s almost a matter of suicide by police.  None of them get away.  Why do they want to do this?

Why?

Why???

The President of the United States has said, in light of the most recent killing, “this is not normal.”  But isn’t “normal” a relative word?  Certainly we would agree with the president’s assessment, I mean, it’s kind of a no-brainer to call this “not normal” – but isn’t it becoming normal?  For some people in our country, perhaps for some young men who live just down the street, these killing sprees look like the exact right thing to do – they look perfectly and brilliantly normal to them.  For me, the most chilling murder by young men is one that hits close to home, literally.  And, I think, it points to a reason why the abnormal is becoming normal.

In 2009, in the small town of Mont Vernon, four seemingly normal young men, ages 17-20, took a drive, armed with knives and a machete, looking specifically for someone to kill.  Anyone.  They broke into a home in the woods and found a woman and her 11-year-old daughter sleeping there.  They brutally and viciously stabbed, slashed, and hacked the woman to death, hacking away at the little girl as well, so violently that they not only smashed bones but also hacked bones into pieces.  The little girl only survived by playing dead.  Why did these four boys do such a thing? 

No, they were not mentally ill.  They wanted to know what it was like to kill people.  One of these boys, even after the fact, thought that this was cool.  The four of them had called themselves the “Disciples of Destruction” and enjoyed violent music and images.  In an article on CrimeLibrary.com, Michael A. Washburn writes,  “Like many suburban kids with too much time on their hands, the "Disciples of Destruction" were drawn together by a shared fascination with the cultures of death and mayhem.”  When Judge Abramson sentenced one of the killers to life in prison with no parole (the harshest penalty allowable) +76 consecutive years, she said to him that she wanted “to ensure that you stay in that cage for the rest of your pointless life.”

His pointless life.  Indeed.  I think that’s exactly the point. 

Many of these serial killers who do all their murdering in one rampage were, I’m quite sure, mentally ill.  But, people who think that other people are not worth anything, people who want to feel the thrill of killing, are not necessarily mentally ill.  We, as a nation of people, absolutely have to get together and truly help people among us who are suffering from mental illness.  We need effective ways to find them and treat their illnesses.  But this won’t be enough.  Just as banning or regulating guns won’t be enough (as the Mont Vernon attack shows).  As these killings more and more become the new normal, we have to be aware that there are young men among us whose lives are pointless, who have no positive direction, who are drawn to darkness and destruction – who have no hope. 

What are we, as a society, offering them?  Meeting beautiful women in bars, drinking alcohol, getting laid, playing video games, and putting up with a crappy job with a jerk for a boss so that they can afford the beer, the games, and maybe a hot set of wheels?  Isn’t this the ideal life of a twentysomething?  And, no, the answer isn’t to provide better jobs – Please!  Is no one listening?  Is no one watching what young men are watching, hearing what young men are hearing?  Frankly, I can see why some are rejecting “normal” behavior.  I can see why young men might want to neither become couch-sitting gamers with five kids from three nagging baby mamas nor workaholics with professional prestige and empty, materialistic lives.  I also see why some would not want to be neatly dressed, mild-mannered fathers-of-two, whose biggest excitement is an enthusiastic “Amen!” on a Sunday or the thrill of an amusement park ride once a year.  Is this really all we’ve got?  Have we nothing of real value to offer?

Meaningful relationships.  Yes, that’s a start.  But… What do relationships mean?  Working with their hands to create something solid that actually helps real people.  Yes, that’s good, too.  Are you making your sons do that?  If you are, are you making them do it so that they can be “nice”?  If so, it’s not going to work.  Nice ain’t gonna cut it.  Real love is the only thing that makes a relationship meaningful.  Real love is the only reason to build improvements for other people’s lives.  And real love is the only thing, the only thing, that keeps our lives from being pointless.

No, I’m not going to blame the parents.  Unless, that is, we, as a society, are the parents.  It does take a village to raise a child, because often the parents can’t do it by themselves, either because they are too busy, too ignorant, or too wounded themselves to know what real love is.  So… What is real love?  

Let’s take the qualities that the young killers at Mont Vernon were attracted to: courage, bravery, honor in brotherhood, something different than ho-hum-get-through-the-day, the newness of discovery, the experience of something hands-on, pushing themselves beyond where they had ever been before.  Yes, I know, even I’m feeling kind of disgusting writing down those words in light of what they did with their desires.  But, now, take those qualities to the classroom.  Now they don’t seem so creepy, but, rather, exhilarating and exactly right.  Take those natural desires of young people to the home and give them a direction in which to go.  A path to take that is beyond ordinary.  Help them to love something, really love something.  I don’t mean a particular someone – how many murders have been committed because a young boy put all of his energies into one girl?  I mean a love of nature, a love of construction, a love of science, a love of arts – poetry, music, performance arts, literature, painting, sculpture, photography, film, etc. – a love of travel, a love of commerce, a love of sports (maybe, at least they won’t have “time on their hands”) a love of community.  Teach them not to look down on other people.  Teach them that we are all interconnected.  Teach them that every human being has – that they have – inherent value that no one and nothing can take away.  Teach them about the human soul!  Every human longs for something more!  Don’t misinterpret, and therefore stifle, that longing to mean more money, more clothes, more accolades, more excitement, more thrills.  The something more for which we all long is Something More.  Something more infinite than the outer reaches of space-time… Something more intimate than the inner depths of feelings.  Infinite and intimate love that calls for courage in making new discoveries and bravery in giving of ourselves completely; infinite and intimate love that doesn’t merely help us get through the day but pushes us beyond ourselves to the sharing of that infinite and intimate love – real love.

I know that I can’t change the world.  And I certainly know that these words are too abstract to be translated into any concrete action.  But, we seriously need to take a look at hope in our country.  (Not the kind of hope that’s marketed and branded by politicians, who are too narrow-minded in their understanding of hope, and who invariably disappoint anyway by getting bogged down in politics, selfishness, or even just the practical, and lose sight of the big picture – lose sight of Something More.)  Every person is unique and has unique gifts for the building up and the giving of life.  Every person is loved into being – hope in that.  There’s the point.  No person is worthless.  No matter how bored, how small, or how voiceless.  A culture of life would understand this.  A culture of life would make decisions out of real love and not out of fear or hopelessness.  But… Ours isn’t a culture of life, is it.

©2014 Christina Chase

All Rights Reserved

Them That Love Me

Who loves God?  (Hands shook up in the air amid choruses of “Oo, oo, I do!  I do!”) 

Exodus 20:6

And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

(Weird!  I promise you, even though this verse is the one directly after the verse I received last week, it, like the other, WAS RANDOMLY GIVEN to me!  Freaky weird.  But, I guess that is true randomness… or perhaps divine providence….  Anyway…)

Who can we say really, truly loves God?  Perhaps some may think of the Pope or a very pious nun, others of a peaceful and devout Imam or a deeply spiritual Rabbi or a wise and generous Lama – or an innocent, joyful child or that elderly person you know who has given so much of his or her life to taking care of other people and serving the local community of worship.  The ones who love God, we can say, are the people of peace and charity, of forgiveness and goodwill, of compassion and joy, who are steadfast in their faith, unwavering in their hope, and self-giving in their love, people of deep prayer and spiritual belief.  Of whom does the question make you think?

I don’t usually recommend thinking of other people when a question is asked or a teaching is given – usually, I try to apply the question or teaching to myself so that I won’t get caught up in pointing fingers.  But, in this case, I believe that it is good if, when hearing the question “Who loves God?”, our minds instinctively go to other people whom we believe to be most worthy of a title such as “One Who Loves God”.  Otherwise, we might be too full of pride.  I do consider myself as one who loves God and would even gladly identify myself in this manner.  But… I know that loving is not something that one merely feels or even chooses by assenting in a kind of intellectual way.  Loving must be lived.  We love, not only with our thoughts and words, but also with our actions, our souls – we love with the entirety of our beings.  So, I ask myself, with my whole life, with my every living moment: do I love God?

In the Bible Burst that I wrote just previously to this one, I explored the question of who hates God.  My ultimate answer, which I realize now is very startling and seemingly harsh, was that anyone who hates a human being hates God.  I stand by that statement.  Truly, because I believe that every human being is created in the image and likeness of God and loved by God, I believe that if I hate another person – or even hate myself – I am despising God, upon whose image and likeness I am directing my hatred.  Yes, humans are capable of the most vile, willful cruelty and disgusting acts of evil – but no one, no human being is irredeemable to God so long as he or she has a functioning will.  Any person, no matter how viciously minded, can choose at any moment to change.  A mass murderer can want to do good and, in the course of exercising some small mercy, may come to see his murderous deeds as wrong and experience true remorse and repentance.  This is the start of one who hated God journeying toward reconciliation with God and it is a gift that God gives to everyone. 
We must want this journey of mercy for every mean hearted person if we are truly going to be people who love God.  We must hope and pray for the conversion of all sinners – especially of the worst and certainly including ourselves.  If we truly love God then we will want what God wants – and God wants every one of his beloved human beings to know mercy, to know love, to know faith and hope.  And how can they know unless they are told, unless they are shown?  And who will it be that shows them?  Are we waiting for God to take care of it with lightning bolts or plagues or a visiting host of heavens angels?  God wants us to love one another and sends us to the needy (those who suffer from the poverty of love and mercy and hope) and to the imprisoned (those who are captives to greed and vengeance and selfishness) to bring hope of salvation, which is the gift of God’s love.  We, created in God’s image, are to minister to our fellow divine images, especially to those who may have lost the loving brilliance of their identities.  It is a privilege, an honor, and a blessing to be able to show the Light of the World to those living in darkness – showing the radiance of the Light by reflecting it with our souls.  For, Divine Love shines forth through us in our every act of true love – “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[1]

So, again, I ask myself if I really, truly love God.  Only God knows the truth of my heart.  Only God can see with infinite clarity the brilliance of my soul – and know whether or not I have sullied it with hate.

 

Christina Chase

All Rights Reserved

 

---

[1] Romans 10:15