The One Language - Part 2

You know what they’re saying, don’t you?

About how everyone who voted for this one is _______.

And everyone who voted for that one is ________.

And how anyone who voted for ________ can’t possibly be a thinking, rational, compassionate, or faithful person.

Who’s out there spewing this stuff?

3^rd graders.  Kindergarteners. 

I was reluctant to tell our kids who we voted for in this U.S. Presidential election because I didn’t want them to feel as if they had to defend their parents when these sorts of discussions arose in school.  I wanted them to be able to say, “I don’t know” when kids tried to figure out whose “side” their family was on, and thus, what kind of people they were.

But sometimes, the thing we’re avoiding can be a door to a new opportunity to learn and grow and draw upon fresh grace.  And sometimes, kids are relentless. I told them.

And then I told them that they did not need to be part of any political discussions at school, and that none of their peers would be educated enough to have a real discussion about the facts anyway, and that in fact, neither were they.

“Ok.  But can I?” asked Andy.

Sigh.  This boy does not avoid the uncomfortable.  And it makes me uncomfortable.

“I don’t want you to get in any fights over this”, I said.

“Can I at least talk to the ones that agree with me?”

I felt a whole lot better about that.  No risk.  “Yeah – that’s fine”.

But also, no gain.

I went back and told him that it’s important that we listen to what people who differ from us have to say, because they are valuable.  They have infinite worth.  Jesus died for them.

And we are not always 100% right about everything.  Only God is.  Only God.

I told him that making a point, however right it seemed, was not nearly as important as caring for the heart inside that one who opposes you.  The words we say can be soothing salve or stinging salt delivered right to the wounded heart.

All this talk about our words made me think of the one language we discussed in the last post, you and I.  The one language we all need to learn?   That of our Father, who is love.  Who is Love. The point of learning a language?  To speak it.  To communicate.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

Boy…I sure can do a lot of weighty things in this world that amount to absolutely nothing. 

We can amass knowledge and use our spiritual gifts and devise great arguments and give our stuff away.  But if we lack love?

When I speak, I am, at best, a noisy gong.

When I use my gifts of knowledge and faith to demonstrate great truths and gain the respect and admiration of others?  I find in the end, that I am actually…nothing.

If I give away everything I have, even my own care for my own body, in a show of great generosity, it profits me nothing.

These gifts are vehicles for the language of Love.  So they are useless without it.  They communicate nothing on their own.

How often have I resentfully served someone out of a sense of duty?  Given out of guilt?  Used my knowledge of the truth to speak in judgement of someone?

…And communicated nothing.

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” – John 13:35

They will not know simply because we give.  They will not know simply because we quote scripture.  They will not know by the faith we express and the stances we take.  And we want them to know…they must know.  After all, Jesus has charged all believers with the job of going out into the world and making disciples.  What will cause us to stand out in the world as disciples of the living God is ours speaking the language only taught by Him.  The communication of Love.

It is only this communication that ever amounts to anything.  Only this that lasts.

“…For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” – Luke 6:45

May I ask you a personal question?  What is your heart language?  Would you be willing to measure your words against Paul’s description of  God’s language?

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice with unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I don’t know about you, but the evidence that comes out of my mouth quite often shows the lack of love in my heart.  But I ask you: What is better?  To willfully engage in conversation with people that expose my deficit, or only speak with those who agree with me so that I never have to face it?  The deficit is there whether I acknowledge it or not.

And our lack of love for people who think differently…it grows with negligence.  Ask me how I know.

What to do when we discover that we lack love?  We must run. Run to the Source of it:

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” – 1 John 4:8-12

When I find that I am speaking some tongue other than Love, I find an invitation from God to allow Him…to allow Love…to fill yet another part of my own broken heart.  God Himself manifested His love in me by sending His only Son into the world, that I might live through Him.  It is through HIM, not through my rights, not through my pride, not through my achievements, not through my culture, and not through my political stance, that I live. And I, who did not love God, but rather, loved myself and hated Him, have been loved by God in a way that cost Him dearly. I didn’t deserve…I don’t deserve His love.  Yet He gives it because He is love.  He can do no other than love. 

If this is true…if I have received and continue to receive undeserved love from its very Source, I will find that I, too, can do no other but to love another.  The language of love pours out of the one whose heart is filled with it. 

Lord, fill us completely.  Fill us to overflowing.  Make the shallow ponds of our hearts into geysers that gush with Your love…right out of our mouths.

Andy did not get in any fights over politics this month.  As it turns out, when kids are just repeating what they hear adults saying, they don’t have a whole lot of conviction to fuel their feuds.  However, when assigned to write about what  he’d do as president of the U.S. yet again this year, Andy did address abortion as before, but also devised a bully rehab program.  Andy has encountered several children who mistreat others this year, and it infuriates him.  There’s no excuse, in his mind, to ever treat people badly…especially physically.  However, as we’ve talked and prayed over these children, Andy has allowed compassion to replace his anger.  He’s thought about what it might be like to go home to an empty house, or to a neglectful parent, or to mean siblings, or to just simply not know that there is a God in heaven who loves him.  While he may not understand a bully, he is allowing God to apply His unlimited understanding to his heart, and fill him with Himself…with Love.

Andy said to me this morning, “I think a bully’s problem is that he doesn’t know he’s loved.  He doesn’t see how he belongs in the world.  The key to changing their lives is not punishment, but love.”  His program would invite families to receive help in a variety of ways, from monetary help to counseling.  His team would work to discover each child’s gifts and interests in order to give them a sense of purpose and belonging. However, the program’s most important work would be to educate people about who God is, what He’s done, and what that means for them. He believes that the knowledge of God’s love will heal the angry or fearful or broken heart….

And make them new.

Friend, draw near to God today.  Let Him fill every empty, broken, bleeding place in your heart.  Find that there is no end to His abundant love; and find yourself unable to contain it.

“…This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” – John 15:12