If the winter chills do get to you
and shivers swim across your skin
then let my arms hold you close
tucked in (smiling) beneath my chin.

I am, at heart, an alchemist;
my craft, that of transformation -
electing to partake in this sacred communion
where heart and mind
are married, make love
Entwined
on a bed of ink and paper – this is their child -
You will call this poetry,
your diagnosis formed;
he is a poet.
Have me without ink or paper near,
   and it seems I am harmless.
But hand me that serviette,
   and this wand which pronounces black tendrils of ink
and, until the sun burns out, you shall see sparks fly.
I am an alchemist.
Here, we see, a growing idea;
a budding rose;
here, an empty page,
a blank canvas, begging frame
- now shifting,
evolving, cycling frame,
now metamorphosed to scraps of gold
  that will need sifting -
a crazy scientist perhaps
   but an alchemist nonetheless.

(Source: kahakaii, via theunbearablelightnessofmyself)

REVOLUTION.

II

I contend there is a language of love
that writers hitherto have not confessed:
evolving out of peace, as from a dove -
two flickering flames, one could suggest.
Two kindled fires burning close,
each spark enunciating “come hither”
that they might declare (love does not boast)
amity beyond the sparking sliver.
That each forked tongue of eager flame
is stretching, yearning for the other;
creating only the greatest chain,
tangled, that all seasons may know Summer.
There is a sixth language of love
that is not of linguistic words from lungs;
but pouring rain and French confessions,
the lovers’ art of speaking in tongues.

“Love isn’t a feeling, love is an action”

It’s become quite the slogan – yet, does the statement hold truth? It’s all well and good to name your ship the HMAS Humphrey but if Humphrey can’t actually set sail anywhere then is he worth naming ‘the HMAS Humphrey’? (i.e., is the statement true? We must throw in some nonsense every now and then, to make sense make even more sense. And dollars too, God willing)

 Is love feeling? Is love action? I am going to present a case for a third notion – that notion being that love is neither action nor feeling alone. Rather, I will propound (theorise, suggest) that love is something above and beyond singular human notions of ‘emotion’ and ‘action’ and, as such, is a fruit of the Spirit, a characteristic of God, which results in emotion and action but is not caused by worship or action. We’ll return to this thought of cause vs. result soon, in discussing worship – but that’s another sea to sail altogether.

Let’s put three theories forth, three trees, if you like. The first theory says that Emotion is a tree, which gives fruit of Love – that is, that love is an emotion. The second theory says that Action is a tree which gives fruit of Love – that is, that love is an action; the belief that our statement “love isn’t a feeling, love is an action” declares. The third tree, the one on top of which I’m currently sitting (it’s a lovely landscape today, thunderstorm left right and centre), says that Love is the tree, as an aspect of God, which then gives fruit of Love and Action as evidence of the tree’s health. In other words, the third tree or the third theory argues that love is not just a feeling and love is not just an action but, rather, love is the character of God, which is evidenced by, and results in, love and action.

I’m writing this mainly from an armament of logic, intermixed with a few Biblical premises. I confess to not having sailed a thousand seas of Scripture in Greek, Aramaic and Klingon in preparation for this. You are, of course, allowed to think whatever you like of what I have to say. May the maintenance of sound doctrine continue as Titus and Timothy were encouraged, and let us spur one another on to love and good deeds, as Hebrews encourages its reader to.

The Three Premises

I will put forth three premises, the very roots of this third tree, from which said tree will grow and flourish. If the three premises are not true, then our case is faulty – the very definition of a ‘premise’ is a fundamental truth from which other truths can be deduced (for example, the statement ‘Birds are better than flying than humans’ can be deduced from the premises that birds can fly and humans cannot, thus, it can be deduced that birds must be better at flying than humans). If, however, these three premises are sound, then we shall arrive at a most curious conclusion regarding ‘love’ in the person and work of Christ.

1. God is love, and as timeless, God does not change. “God’s love is Biblically declared to be great[1], unfailing and redemptive[2], enduring[3], abounding[4], the substance of humanity’s covenant with God[5] and the cause of our salvation[6]” (from the Revolution Manifesto). Because God’s love is eternal[7] and God doesn’t change, but forever stays the same[8], it can be deduced that God’s love was present before creation and before time; thus, that all love is derivative of God’s love. God is love. Because God does not change, neither does any of his characteristics change. Thus, God’s love does not change.
2. Jesus is God in Trinity. God is one, yet Trinity – Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and God the Father in one person[9].
3. Jesus showed His love for us in dying on the cross while we were still sinners, unrighteous. As Paul enunciated it to the Romans; “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.[10]” As John wrote in that passage we have become so used to, almost ignorant of its beauty – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, what whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.[11]”

Now that we have established these premises, these fundamental truths, we can make a few deductions – we can step off our platform, our foundation, knowing that the truth extends beyond it. If God is love, and God is unchanging, then love is unchanging; yet, God’s love for the world was showed in Christ dying for us…

The key is the word, ‘showed.’ Christ’s dying for us was evidence of God’s love for us, but Christ’s crucifixion did not create God’s love for us, for as we have established, God’s love has been in place since before the cogs of time began to spin – and Christ’s love for us on the cross, in that action, was the same as His love for us, when “the Word [Jesus] was with God” before Time. The action of dying for us, was love, but only because this love was greater than the action itself. This refutes the argument that love is action alone, but supports the argument that love is evidenced in action and action is an outworking of love.

We see that Christ loved the unlovable, not only in death, but also in life; yet, what action is it to ‘do something nice’ for someone and love them in action, if you’re hating doing it? There must be some internal conviction – not emotion, not some sappy, wishy-washy half-formed hormonal Shakespearean excerpt of pop-cultural ‘romantic’ claptrap – something which causes the action to communicate love. No action creates itself – some motive always creates the action. You eat, because you are hungry. Well, I do, at least. Some people at because they’re bored, another issue entirely. But you take my point – there is a sequence – internal conviction leads to decision and motive, leads to action. Christ died for us, because He loved us. Love is neither action alone, nor emotion alone; love is beyond action and emotion, and is echoed through them.

If Christ had died on the Cross and secretly hated what He was doing, it would not have been an action of love. While dying for someone is a nice thing to do – and we are by no means good people, thus heightening the love shown in Christ’s death – it is the motive of Christ’s sacrifice which renders it a loving action. He didn’t get up there and mutter and murmur and complain about a lack of Internet reception. No, He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That is the heart of Christ, at its most revealed state – that even at being jeered at, spat at, mocked, with his bones exposed and his flesh torn by all manner of weapon, his humanity restricted to sport and humour in a spectacle of death, above at all that – above all that hatred – he was Love. That His love rose above their hatred, that His peace rose above their pain, that His victory conquered His agony –that is love. Christ’s action (being crucified) and his emotion (concern for his killers) were of love because of some internal conviction, something of God, which caused them. Christ loved in emotion – and Christ loved in action – but this action and emotion were simply results of the ‘love.’ Results, not the nature itself. Trees are plants, not fruit – fruit comes from trees, but the fruit is not the plant itself. Do you follow? Love is the tree. Love is not emotion, love is not action, love is God, and God’s love results in emotion and results in action, but is not created by emotion or action.

Christ’s incarnation was the translation of Love into human form – fully God, fully man. But before any action, before any emotion, there was Love. Love is God; God is love; we must not take our definition of love (which is often developed from magical mixtures of Twilight, Shakespeare, however many sappy films you can name and emotional overdoses) to God and say “No, God does not fit my idea of love.” Rather, we must say that “God” and “Love” are synonymous, and we must come from God with our understanding of love. Any idea of love formed outside of God is flawed, for He alone is love, and He alone is good.

How do we know this internal conviction? Simply, the Holy Spirit is God’s ambassador of Love to us. It is by the Holy Spirit that we know God’s love, as showed in Christ.

Let us love others, then, because God loves us; love will change the world.

[1] Numbers 14:19

[2] Exodus 15:12-14, Psalm 13:5, 21:7, 31:16

[3] 1 Chronicles 16:33-35;

[4] Numbers 14:18-19, Nehemiah 9:16-18

[5] Deuteronomy 7:11-13, Nehemiah 9:31-33

[6] Psalm 6:3-5

[7] 1 Kings 10:9

[8] Hebrews 13:8

[9] John 1:1-17

[10] Romans 5:7-8

[11] John 3:16