Contrast

Contrast. It seems it takes contrast to really bring truth to light. Even that, there has to be the dark for the light to shine in. Why does it take death to more fully appreciate life? Or maybe that is why there is death, so we can appreciate life. As I sit here watching a whole community of people morn the loss of a man who was a husband, son, father, pastor, and leader in the community of Bohoc, I am flooded with thoughts of life and death and the finality and sorrow, and beauty and love in it all. It makes me think of the demonstration of putting a frog in warm water and slowly heating it versus putting it in hot water. Why someone did this to make this example I don't know. But how often in life are we that same frog. If something in our life suddenly comes about, like the hot water, we react- jump out of that mess. But if we are slowly heated, we may not even notice what is happening until we are boiling. This happens in both positive and negative ways. The way I think of it now, is with how we love others. How we can tend to take people for granted until we are all the sudden faced with losing them or all the sudden realize we have already lost them due to negligence or a lack of showing with our lives what we feel in our hearts. Hein and I talked about when things are left unsaid. About how sad it is when a father never let's his son know how proud of him he is. Or a friend never gets the chance to forgive the other for words said in anger. God really knew what He was talking about when He said don't let the sun go down on your anger. And I don't mean that in a- let fear of what could happen dictate your actions but instead that LOVE would dictate our actions. Because whatever that thing was we were hurt or mad about, is it more important than Love? I want to live my life this way, I want my love to show stronger than any other part of me. Love looks many ways to many people. It's a tricky thing sometimes. The father that works all day to provide for his family, it is out of love- but how does it get interpreted? He doesn't care because he isn't present. Or the mom that nags and nags- what she is trying to communicate is -I want the best for you- and in turn gets communicated- you can't do anything right. Love is so easy and so complex all at the same time. I don't really know where I am going with all this, I just have thoughts in my head and feelings in my heart and I don't know where to put them all. Sometimes my body physically hurts because of the intensity of the love I am feeling for someone. But what use is that if they never know it? Or if I don't know how to communicate it to them. Lord, help me to show people on the outside what my heart feels on the inside.