9.2.16

Love is Rebellion



At Toastmasters last night, I gave a speech on some of my experiences in Afghanistan and Dave Lyon, the young man who was killed. I won't repeat the speech here because many of you have heard me speak of Dave on many separate occasions.

But I concluded on this note: As much as the loss of Dave hurt, I am grateful to know that love still exists. This world is broken, all love is in some form broken, and one day, all love will be love lost. Yet, even in this type of world, love still remains. What a testament to God's grace!

Later on, we had our "Table Topics" time when random subjects are introduced and people are asked to speak about them. I raised my hand for the subject of special memories from a past Valentine's Day.

On Valentine's Day in 2004, my nephew was born. Now I have lots of nephews and nieces at this point (which is awesome!!!) and each of their births were special. The really cool thing about this birthday is that it connected love with life. The natural outworking of love is life.

In the Bible, we are told that "love is as strong as death" (Song of Songs 8). One practical outworking of that comes in the form of life. Death in this fallen world is inevitable, but as long as love persists, so does life. Love becomes our rebellion against our fallen condition and the death that ensues.

Connecting my formal speech with my brief Table Topics one, I cherish again the fact that the Lord, knowing he would take close His hand upon Dave in this world and open it upon the world to come, gave Dave and Dana their final couple of days together in Afghanistan. There is also a logic behind the baby boom that so often occurs after a deployment. Soldiers see the rising tide of brokenness crash over precious lives, so they come home and start anew. To put it crassly, the pleasures of the marriage bed are combined with the purpose of the marriage bed--to turn love into life.

John 11. Jesus, looking upon the tomb of his friend Lazarus and two grief-stricken sisters, wept with great, heaving sobs. The Son of God made flesh, weeping. Why? Did He not know that He would raise Lazarus up just a few moments later? Sure He did, but He also knew what the world was like when it was created through Him--what men had made of it--and it all ended with a tomb. He felt the brokenness in His mortal bones. He then waged a rebellion of His own against death. Surely He knew the words following "Love is strong as death...Many waters cannot quench love; neither can the floods drown it." With that, the Lion roared, the stone rolled away, and the dead man was raised.

Soon after, the Lion would become the slain Lamb--an object of ridicule before a rebellion world. But through that humiliation, He would forever turn back the tide of death upon itself. He will forever be the slain Lamb and the roaring Lion. And one day, the Lion will return and bring death to death and life to life.

All of this, we consider with the reminder: God shows His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. His supreme act of love for death-destined sinners was to bring them to life through His perfect life and sacrificial death. With His own resurrection from the tomb, He reminds us that a final Day is coming. Until that Day, dear Lord, when You rend the heavens and roar...

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