i heard a really good sermon today about the love portrayed between Naomi and Ruth. It wasn't the typical moral to the relationship between these two women - you know, the typical passage that's read at weddings "where you go, i will go... your god will be my god" stuff... it focused more on the servant love that is expressed between the two.
Naomi, moving from severe self-interest and wallowing to other-focused, looking to protect and make sure Ruth was taken of in future circumstance. Ruth, in turn, protecting and caring for Naomi through her marriage to Boaz which cemented Naomi's future care - but also Ruth's posisble pain (being a widow for the second time, not having children). The message really focused on service to one another and the fact that love is costly.
I agree that love is costly, love is sacrificial. One thing the pastor mentioned is that people usually help others "to a point" and then resist. While I understand the need to urge people past this point, I also know, from personal experience the detrimental ramifications of going past this point. The question for me, I guess, is "what does healthy love look like?" I often worry I will enter the realm that is unhealthy - that, if I go passed the point, to the degree that I lose sight of myself, God... - There have been circumstances where, out of love initially, people have been hurt, manipulated, burnt out, etc. So while we need to push some, perhaps we need to pull back others? I don't know the answer to this. I mean, as far as love goes, Christ gave his life - so should I be willing to give my life for another out of this same love? Maybe it's that I don't realize what I truly take on when deciding to love others, and really don't realize what it truly means to love God with my life. But these are all good questions to ponder - questions that don't need to be answered... my pursuit to love God with my life presses on admist the questioning, and that's a good thing.
I've also been wondering about marriage today in light of this sermon. If our responsibility as Christians is to love, to love others through service, and for this love to pertain to all people... what distinguishes this love from "marriage love" (if it is, in fact, different?) What really is the purpose of marriage? To serve one another in the pursuit of glorifying God? Isn't that what we are supposed to be doing with everyone? I'm not dissing marriage by any means... I'm just wondering what this means for me. I've been in a relationship where, through my love for another person, lost sight of God, lost sight of others, and maybe even lost sight of myself - and this was all in the pursuit of glorifying God through such love. Maybe I think it just gets messy when we add another person into the equation... but maybe that's not the case when it's the right person. Is it that we love our spouses more than others? Or is it that two people in marriage have really found their service to God is strengthened by being united in Him, so enter into a covenant together?
I need to love better and I'm trying to figure out what that means... peace.
