Love is Blind

The phrase 'love is blind' was coined by Shakespeare in Merchant of Venice

But love is blind and lovers cannot see

I was reading Genesis 3 just now and read the part when Adam and Eve's eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked and were scared because of their nakedness and hid. And God is like "who told you you were naked?"

Love is blind. After they ate, their eyes were opened. Before they sinned, they were "blind" to how they were naked; they loved God; they were consumed by His presence.

When someone is in love, or in love with God, you can tell. because they're blind, consumed. Every part of their life is affected.

Separation of Ministry and Personal Life?

When people ask me how my semester went, I think of my semester in terms of two different aspects: the Christian movement aspect, and my own personal struggles.

If I start talking about the Christian movement aspect and all the things God has been doing on this campus, and what God has been leading me to do this semester, etc., it'll be a great conversation.

As for my own personal struggles, most of the time I don't feel them, so I ignore the fact that they might exist. But when they do bubble up, I can't ignore them.

So I wonder how separated ministry and personal life should be, if at all? And what separation even means? In my mind, they are separated because I can't think about them together. I feel encouraged when I think about the Christian movement, but not so much when I think about my personal issues/struggles, which is why I try not to think too much about my personal struggles since I feel that they aren't that God-glorifying.

But today I thought about great pastors who are great at preaching, great at ministry, always fired up about God and encouraging other brothers/sisters, but terrible at being a father or husband, and not great at home.

I'm beginning to see that it's possible and easy to separate ministry and personal life, and to put God in the ministry part, but not the personal life part. It's easy to encourage yourself by thinking about the ministry part and ignoring personal faults/weaknesses/tendencies/struggles/daily life practical character issues. It's kinda scary how easy it is.

It's important to allow God to move in both parts of your life, and to mesh the two together. Your home is also your ministry. Your family is your ministry. Your closest friends are your ministry. What I mean is you never stop loving and showing grace to those around you, and letting God's light shine through you, and letting the Spirit move through you and in you. We don't remind ourselves to do these things. It's supposed to be natural. We're supposed to be transformed by God--our whole being. Not just when we're outside of our homes. Let us seek and pursue Him who changes us, who disciplines us, who reveals our weaknesses to us. If our "family"/inner lives are struggling, it's a wakeup call to be honest with God about our personal walks with Him. Do we really know Him? Do we really love Him? Are we in love with Him, consumed by Him?

Love is Powerful

Aren’t you glad that our God is powerful? That the One we love is also able to save us? That He is worthy of our praise? I was thinking about what this means—that God is powerful, not some artificial teddy bear.

I thought about how, sometimes, I look at someone’s needs and I know I don’t have the time or ability to help them. And I realize that I myself do not have the power to help them, but God does.

Sometimes I’m in that situation too. Especially the times last year when I couldn’t do my CS or ECE project, and I knew there was no one who could help me. My code was beyond repair, my knowledge deficit beyond help. People could comfort me and tell me that it’s okay; they could give me tips, or explain the directions. People could love me the best they could, but they had no power to change my situation.

The power to change situations is important; we are a needy and desperate people. We need God; God gives life.

What does it mean to need God, to be desperate in our need?... I remember my desperation last year when I was in ECE lab and didn’t understand what to do. I remember telling myself that I would be willing to do anything for someone to help me. It was really scary to even think that I ever thought something like that for something so silly. But that actually is how helpless I felt. I was so grateful that someone who didn’t even know me was willing to work with me, although I knew nothing, and he basically did the lab for me or told me what to do. After that lab, I called my mom and cried because it was just such a scary experience—feeling so desperate that you can’t think of anything you wouldn’t do to get help. I’ve never felt that desperate before, and have not felt that desperate since then; at least not about non-spiritual things. In the same way we are helpless when it comes to being able to save ourselves from death. We can’t. but God can. And He has.

And so after thinking about this analogy from own life, I understood better what trusting in God was about, and what it means to really need God, to be desperate spiritually. We are not trusting in someone who doesn’t exist, who is weak, who has weaknesses. We are trusting the One who is worthy of our trust. It is a trust that makes sense. God is worthy. And we need Him. We desperately need Him.

Immersion as Love

What does it mean to be in the world, to be immersed in it, not just to dabble in it?

Immersion and dabbling are different. Dabbling is going in and then quickly coming out. Immersing is losing track of time. It is putting your entire heart into it. Into loving the world. The people of this world.

Picture yourselves going to hang out with prostitutes, or brothel girls—to eat with them, socialize with them, live where they live. Stop. In this imagery, did you try to immerse in their culture, laugh with them? Or did you just sit awkwardly with them and observe them and try to have “polite” but reserved talk due to excessive culture shock?

Apostle Paul says that he became weak to reach the weak, and he became whatever other groups were in order to reach them. In this he did not mean that he compromised his moral standards, but that he tried to position himself among them, rather than above them or outside of them. He tried to relate to them, not focus on his discomfort, the culture shock or awkwardness. Eat with the prostitutes; hang out with the tax collectors.

Let us give our hearts to love those whom God loves, to be in the world, immersed in it, to “lose track of time”, putting our whole hearts into loving and becoming whatever is called for to reach the lost.

Lord, teach me what this means. Teach me how to live.
No. Show me how to die. So I can live for you. Shores of Grace