When we’re half dead and want to be fully alive, we need a love that crosses a line.
He was half dead. She had been stripped naked.
They had worked him over, taking enjoyment from the assault.
I leaned down over her nakedness and heard a whisper, ‘Help me.’
I saw beauty under her bruises. I saw his potential slipping away. I saw it all, felt it all.
I had crossed a line. I was in their world now.
Others walked up, noticed, and avoided. I held her close, hoping something of my life would breathe into her. He draped his arms over me, fingers clasping for connection.
I didn’t have much to offer, but all that I had, I gave.
‘Stop walking by,’ I screamed at all the self-righteous with their self-protective rules. They would look with millisecond attention, focus elsewhere, then quicken their pace.
The thugs who had assaulted this naked soul were probably still around. Perhaps I would be next.
Love crosses a line.
Love crosses a lineThe relationship between the first woman and the first man must have been incredible. Sure, there was a line around the unique identity that was a man, and that was a woman. They were different but also complementary.
There was a deep desire to outdo the other in the expression of love. So it flowed. It overflowed. One into the other and back again.
No hint of selfishness or holding back. No walls or hiddenness.
The line was there, they knew they were different from each other, but there was such an openness to both give and receive.
Love crossed a line where they didn’t even know a line existed.
Lines with wallsWe now have walls built on top of our lines: fences, barricades, and even razor wire in some cases.
A little hurt here and there, and we build a wall. The wall becomes thicker and higher with repeated experiences.
The ‘I will never let my heart be hurt like that again’ sentence becomes a mantra most likely learned as a little child. Repeated over and over again, it becomes an anthem.
Repeated experiences of abuse, both small and large, help validate our wall-building program.
We are secure inside our walled city. Isolated but safe. Alone but in control. Strong, but actually fragile.
But we need community. Someone to leave their travel plans and venture into the ditch where we are half-dead. Someone who wants to see us become fully alive.
Can we be vulnerable to some line crossing?
To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.
But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change.
It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable. C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Jesus tells a parable of what vulnerable love looks like.
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.”
Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’
He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
This agape love leaps across mountains and bounds over hills (Song of Solomon 2:8). It runs through bands of robbers and thieves and jumps over walls built high. (Psalm 18:29)
It’s absurd to the rationalist and rule-bound.
It’s real, costly, and puts the lover at risk. It kisses the leper and breathes life into corpses.
The legalists, the accountants, the Pharisees, and the scribes will definitely look down upon it. They will critique the gifts poured out as much as they did the woman who kissed and poured perfume over the feet of Jesus. (Luke 7:36-39)
To Cross a Line is to take a risk.To show us love, God crossed a line. God came to us in the form of someone like ourselves – Jesus. We killed God on a cross. Christianity is the only religion in the world where God dies.
Love died and rose again.
Now we are called to take a risk and cross a line.
It doesn’t have to be large. It could be giving someone a glass of water or some clothes. On the other hand, it might be visiting someone imprisoned by illness, poverty, or crime (Matthew 25:31-46). Crossing a line, moving beyond self to enter another self, always carries an element of risk.
Would you do it for me?
Do for one, what you wish you could do for everyone.
Quotes to consider
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. 1 Coronthians 13:1-3
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. Henri J.M. Nouwen
Barry Pearman
Photo by Will on Unsplash
Read this further here
FOLLOW ME!
Email me: barry@turningthepage.co.nz
Website: https://turningthepage.co.nz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/turningthepage1atatime
Twitter: https://twitter.com/barrypearman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barry_pearman/
Podcast https://turningthepage.co.nz/podcast-listen-mental-health/
Support Turning the Page with a Donation https://turningthepage.co.nz/give/
Upon Leaving the Cocoon
Learning to Detach Helps with Anxiety
‘Power over’ or ‘Power With’. What causes you to flourish?
Good things, like Mental Health, take Time. Let’s be patient
Would you Know my TRUE Name
Episode 15 Everyone needs a Batman
Episode 14 Every Man Needs the Gift of Respect
Episode 13 ‘We need to talk’ about Cortisol
Episode 12 Are you Strong Enough to be my … Friend
Episode 11 Stop ‘Shoulding’ and Start ‘Coulding’ Yourself
Episode 10 Washing the Memories Free of Trauma
Episode 9 Three Responses to Chaos
Episode 8 Every Footprint Needs Affirmation
Episode 7 To Listen to them Be Quick to Listen to Your 'Self'
Episode 6 A Mountain in Your Life? Where does your Help Come From?
Episode 5 Your Failure in Life Needs Love
Episode 4 Why Men Don’t Talk. 26 Reasons for Silence
Episode Three. God Sets the Lonely in Families
Episode 2. Is my Mental Illness because of Sin in my life?
Episode 1 God can handle your raw anger Jul 26, 2019
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Life After Ministry
Cast The Word
Let Me Be Frank | Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Podcast | Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
The Bible Recap
The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)