We finally get to Love

The final prime value we mutually agreed upon for Prairie Table is "love." Now, no one word has received more attention, thought, and creativity than that word...ever. This blog can only add to the confusion if it tried...so we'll leave it undefined for now...But the interesting question is why would a group of people, who have only been living and working together for about nine months, discern that God calls forth "love" from this community? What is it about love that keeps Christians searching for it? (Even in a church basement with a bunch of strangers on a windy evening in April!)



I wonder if we search for love because we rarely experience it or, more frequently, are never sure we participate in it? I suppose this is a variation of Augustine's phrase "Our hearts are restless Lord, until they rest in thee." There is a certain "restless-ness" to love that continually pushes and pulls on the soul-strings of our lives...the rhythm of our hearts beats like drums, with words of love flowing off our tongues (thank you Rod Stewart!)...but there's a fleetingness to love, an illusion of profundity that vanishes into broken promises, failed relationships, and frustrating ambiguity...



So we seek it out wherever and whenever we can...maybe like my 20-30 year old friends at bars and clubs searching for one whom love can shine on or through...maybe like my 40-50 years old friends searching for ever new ways for love to spring forth from long-time companions...or even my friends over 50 (I'm sure I have them, but all my senior friends seem so young!)...who search for love that will last 'til the end of time...



I have been blessed over my life to love many people and to have many people love me back...some relationships have been for only minutes...others a lifetime...and what astounds me still to this day is how there is always room for more love...our capacity to love (at least to this point in my life) seems limitless...just the other day I was thanking a friend (he's a long-distance runner) who spurred me on a few months ago to increase my exercise routine...he was shocked...why would you listen to me, he asked? I figured you weren't lying to me, and it turns out you were right...Now, that kind of love that looks out for a neighbor rarely makes headlines, plots of movies or vampire novels...but it is the love that weaves the fabric of our lives...it is the love that comes from a God who so loved the world...and even died...so that love does not.



No wonder we all agreed on "love." In the end, it's all we are...