Why Love?

June 22, 2004

Personal Narrations

Joel Akin

Calgary, Alberta

Imagine standing on the edge of a wide precipice and before you were all the wonders of a creation in perfection. All you had to do to obtain it was walk away from everything that you were familiar with. Now if your life was hard or cheap or filled with sorrow perhaps the choice would be easy. But what if it were not? What if as you stood there you suddenly realized that the world you knew and saw seemed sweet and the 'perfect' world was one shown to you by God? And what if that perfect world seemed near yet so far away because of one simple thing that stood in the way. Yourself? Who among us had the courage to walk off that precipice into the unknown?

 But lets go a step further. Because as Paul wrote in Corinthians there are three things we must obtain. Faith, Hope and love. Now what if the Church did not understand true Agapi love so they substituted brotherly love in its place. And then instead of teaching the importance of hope they resorted instead to faith. Yet their focus on achieving faith left people betting upon the wrong horse. For God never intended that faith displace hope or love but wanted the church to grow beyond faith. But how can such a thing be possible? How can one grow beyond faith?

 Gods plan was simple. That one would come to a position of 'ultimate' faith so that ones focus could then resort to the greatest of all these things, love. Now the purpose of this article is not to show you how to obtain 'ultimate' faith but instead to show the critical need of true godly love. For today the church may have a certain level of 'faith' but faith is no more then a sword or a tool. Yet it is the hand that wields it which will determine the battles which will be won and the battles lost.

 For example faith alone is like the rich man who sits at a table while underneath the beggar suffers and lives off the scrap of food. Faith alone can provide one with riches but they do not provide the soul with color. We must realize God does not give us faith to provide for our needs alone. But faith is a gift, a tool so that in union with love we can embrace that beggar underneath the table as a brother and help meet his needs.

 For if the greatest of these things is love then love is what we must aim for. But when aiming for love it requires something that is the hardest for us to give. Ourselves! Why? Why should we give up the gift that is most precious to us? Such a gift seems beyond the most caring of us and in fact leaves many of us afraid when confronted with such a thought. I know that it does me. I know when thinking of it I want to shrink away from such an action. Suddenly all the things I have, all the things I want to do or want to achieve. For me. For myself. My life. My way.

It is not that God is demanding it. He is not forcing me to chose such a path. I have a choice. I can live my life my way as I see fit. Live with the faith God has given me and the hope I have of a rich tomorrow. But there is that inner voice. The still quiet voice which says, "If you want more of me then you must chose love."

Oh such a simple word. How simple we have made it in our churches and in our homes. We have heard it from a 1,000 voices in so many sermons. Reduced to its basic components so the threat of it, the passion of it is lost and forgotten. I know. I have preached on it but without awareness of its true nature. For we talk about Faith moving mountains and healing the sick and ceasing the storms but we have forgotten that faith is not the greatest of these. Not by far.. Not even close. For if love is greater and higher then faith then why do we not see that power? For until we can answer that question no amount of faith will shake the people or awaken the world from her slumber. For until the church, the bride of Christ awakens from her sleep and is filled with love will that hunger the world has be filled and satisfied.

Yet it starts with us. Oh this is hard to write. It starts with me. I must let go and allow myself to start to care. But in caring, in love, in compassion this is not based on human thoughts or human gestures. For our thoughts and our efforts are imperfect. They are lacking the one thing that we cannot give. True divine love which comes by divine order and decree. Where we give ourselves to God so that He can give Himself through us. I cannot think of anything I would rather do yet knowing such a desire carries a price.

 For as in wisdom. Without it the burden we carry grows heavier the longer we carry it. But with wisdom the burden starts out great but grows lighter as our journey progresses. So it is with love. It is a dying to this world because this world carries with it the stench of death of darkness and of bondage. True liberty and freedom can only come when one loves enough to give up their life for another. And it is in that giving that we find the truth that will set us free. It is in that giving that faith truly comes alive for it is then we use it as the way it was intended. For others.

 So I pray not for great faith but that God would bestow to me the courage to have true love. For when I have achieved the greatest of these things then surely the simpler things such as faith and hope will be there also.