Why love? I need to know.
The motions can choke me. Sometimes loving is so easy, uncontainable, and then
I am filled again with the question. Those times, loving hurts. Deep down, love
is serving, always in some form-- serving God, or myself. Serving out of love mimics the greatest Love I know, out of emptiness,
then I simply build with wood, hay or straw.
I
know of a man who worked fourteen years for his bride. It’s a heart-sighing
story of love at first sight. When the woman first came to him, she was unaware.
She wasn’t working for his attention. She was working for her father, working
for her Lord. In steps the hero. “When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of his uncle Laban, and Laban’s sheep,
he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered
his uncle’s sheep.” Genesis 29. She might not have been trying to make a good
impression, but he was. And he did. He rolled away the stone. He served, and it
was just because he wanted to. He wanted to serve her so she would see his
love. And it doesn’t end there. When the sheep were watered, he makes his first
move. “Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. He had told Rachel
that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah.” Love blossoms. He
serves her father, and Laban asks him, “Just because you are a relative of
mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
That was easy. Rachel had a lovely figure and was
beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “ ‘I’ll work for you seven
years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.’
Laban
said, ‘It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here
with me.’ So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only
a few days to him because of his love for her.“ (Genesis 29)
His
loving service lasted a long time. He never asked, “Why?” The answer was always
before him—because of
his love for her. Pure romance—serving
for fourteen years (as it ends up being) serving out of a full,
deep desire to give nothing but love. I
imagine a girl worthy of that love, a girl who brought out cool drinks to him
in the field to keep him going, a girl who brought him barley cakes, who
offered enough sweet smiles, who held him there by the gaze of her eye. But
that is not what is written. We see only his devotion, his service—his joy, his whole
hearted love.
It
relieves me and pains me that the motives of my heart are only known by Him. If
my motives were made visible, how much more would honesty, openess abound? Would the sight draw me closer to
Him, closer to those I serve, or would shame and division result?
Joshua 22:5 Only
be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant
of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all
his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve
him with all your heart and with all your soul."
My
fake service is unglorifying. And while I desire to serve Him, it’s much less
gratifying to desire to clean toilets and do for someone who makes no attempts
to serve back, to serve the thankless. Therein my heart stalls, motives fail. I
serve out of stubbornness to do right, not desire to love. I forget to frame my
mind, to remember that even these difficult opportunities to serve, are ones He
has made, and made me for. Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should
walk in them.
My Lord serves me out of
love-- me, who am too often myself thankless, who too often takes His service
for granted, me, who fails to reciprocate. I am my own worse enemy, his enemy at
the cross, and yet His motives remained pure. He served, served whole heartedly
for me.
Mark 2
23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields,
and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24And
the Pharisees were saying to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not
lawful on the Sabbath?" 25And he said to them, "Have you
never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who
were with him: 26how he entered the house of God, in the time of
Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not
lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with
him?" 27And he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath. 28So the Son of Man is lord even of
the Sabbath."
What
love-- that He serves, He meets needs. His serves out of a love that cares
about our needs. And promises to meet them. “And a man was there with a
withered hand. And they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath?"— so that they might accuse him. 11He said to them,
"Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath,
will not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 Of how much more value
is a man than a sheep!” (Matthew 12)
Jesus
never served for his own sake, but for our sake—not for his own praise, but for
His Father’s accolade. Romance, in the form of love poured out, is an act of
servanthood. Not for my gain, but yours, not for my thanks, but gratitude for
Him. Not my pleasure, not my happiness, but I serve for His. “Not my will but
Yours be done.” Service, out of an overflow of the heart. Service, out of love
for others. Service, because I pledged my love. Service, not dependent on the circumstances, not
dependent on the reactions, service because I truly, wholly love. Then 21 days of romance, turn into all my days
romance. And all my days romance turns from “What have you done in return? Did
you even notice? Did you remember?”…Turns from the “Why love?” And
turns into ”because of my love”—always and ever, because of my love, because of
His love.
Lord, help me to live romance through my hands and feet,
that they be as Your hands, serving hands.
Help me to pen notes of encouragement, rub weary shoulders, pull home cooked
dinners from the oven, clean and kiss dirty faces… Help me not to be merely Martha, serving with my hands, but Mary too, serving with my heart. Help me to be as John the
Baptist, who lived and died to serve. Help me to be me-- serving with eyes not looking
for returns on love, but looking at You.
A world-- full of hearts to serve...
Your
love sonnet to me today: the love and service offered my from my sister during
these wonderful days at her home.
"Do you understand
what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you
are right, for so I am. 14If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have
washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15For I
have given you an example.”
John 13
Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
1 Peter 4:11
whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one
who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything
God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen.
John 3:20-21 20
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is
true comes to the light, so that it may
be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."
Care to see where we've been on this 21 Days of Romance? (Seeking out romance in His word) You might like to see:
awaken the heart to see and feel love.
still feel.
stones.
