Monday, January 11, 2010

A not so blurry line

Let me preface this post by saying that you just never know what you're going to get here. Sometimes I write about travel, sometimes I write about the empty nest or parenting daughters or living in England or food or any number of random topics. In other words I haven't exactly defined my blog content. One of the reasons I started blogging is because I like to write. And I'd like to be a better writer which is why I told myself I was going to participate in the one word blog carnival more regularly in 2010. Every two weeks Bridget and Peter host a one word blog carnival where you can link a post relating to the selected word of the week. And this week the word on the blog carnival is lust. Yeah.

I only participated a couple of times back in the fall but I really enjoy reading the posts every two weeks and I encourage you to go here and read this week's posts. So many talented writers and it is amazing how many different directions people can go with just one word. I'm thinking this week maybe not so many but I might be wrong. And I thought about not participating but that seemed chicken. I thought, 'Does this word ever have a positive connotation?''

Nope. Don't think so. At least I couldn't come up with one. It takes me back to highschool youth group talks...'Is it love or is it lust?' We didn't care truth be told because lust does that. Lust blinds us to reality and consequence. It puts the focus on the me instead of on the you. Where a relationship built on love asks, "What can I do for you?" a relationship based on lust asks, "What can I get from you?"

As I thought about this week's word the phrase lust for power kept running thru my brain. And the phrase lust for power makes me immediately think about our government. I'm sure many of our senators and representatives went to Washington DC with the noblest of intentions. They truly wanted to represent their neighbors and community... to give something back to a country that has afforded them so much. But a little taste of power ignites a lust for more. And that lust causes them to forget why they ever went in the first place. Or to ignore and excuse and justify behavior. Lust brings out all kinds of loveliness in we humans doesn't it?

I thought I'd go to the authority on this particular topic and while the Bible has plenty to say on the topic of lust there is no 'lust chapter' that I'm aware of. There is however a love chapter (1 Corinthians 13) a portion of which goes like this...

'Love is patient
and kind
love does not envy
or boast
is not arrogant or rude
It does not insist on its own way
it is not irritable or resentful
it does not rejoice at wrong doing but rejoices with the truth.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.'

And lust is exactly the opposite.

One of the things I like about the blog carnival is the way it makes me think just a little bit harder. Once I've seen the word for the week it rolls around my brain and I am more observant of life...my own and also what is happening around me. I don't know if you watch The Bachelor but we do...it's a bit like watching a train wreck in slow motion and as we watched last night I couldn't help but think about this week's word. Reality television and lust seem to go hand in hand and as I watch I'm struck by the easy way the word love is tossed around. Love is easy? The line between love and lust is a little bit blurry in the world of reality television it seems. Actually it's a little bit blurry in the real world too. Lust is easy. But love? Not always easy.

My favorite verse in Chapter 13 is this...Love bears all things...all things...like mortgage payments, vomiting children, in -laws, leaky faucets and dead car batteries to name just a few. While lust sits on the surface of life, love goes deep. It sits squarely in the center of life's everyday-ness. Love requires commitment and thought and effort. It requires doing the hard thing when you don't feel like it. It requires showing up. It requires selflessness.
It fills you up. It seeps into all you are and hope to be. Love's demands are great.

So are love's rewards.

13 comments:

  1. Well-said! I love that passage and I agree with your thoughts!

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  2. You let the word swirl in your brain and came up with some great insight. I'm ever thankful for the love I found in my husband. I get to experience all of that great stuff you described in your last paragraph.

    P.S. On a totally different note, I'm truly enjoying daughter1's blog.

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  3. You nailed it on the head. Love is so much better than lust!

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  4. I blog because I like to write too, even if no one reads it. I agree that lust ususally isn't a positive word and the Biblical version of love is so much better.

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  5. Great post! And your answer on my blog today made me smile!

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  6. Great thoughts! Lust is easy and it is also selfish... love is hard work, yet so rewarding!

    I'm really glad you've been a part of the carnivals, Joyce.

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  7. Beautiful post...glad you didn't chicken out!! Lust does have a role in our lives, but love is our life.

    Amy

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  8. Hey there! Congratulation on being the next leg in the "I Won...You Win" Giveaway. Let me know when you get the book and when you get it posted to give away on you blog I will link over from my blog.

    Blessings
    Robin

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  9. Thank you for pointing at the love chapter. I need to read it again and again because I haven't yet learned to love perfectly.

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  10. I agree with Helen that is one scripture verse that we must read over and over until we can live it.

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  11. Wonderful thoughts on the topic! I'm glad you decided to contribute this go-around.

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  12. As always, you have such great insight on things you post about. Have you ever given any thought to writing a book? Love is hard work and I am amazed at all the people who fall out of love because it is not "pretty". As you said, it is not always easy to love someone. Things happen in life, but we must move on. The ultimate love of our life and our example of how to love is Jesus Christ. Who could ask for anything more?
    Love & blessings from NC!

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