{"id":3911,"date":"2024-08-14T06:58:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T10:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3911"},"modified":"2024-08-14T06:59:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T10:59:14","slug":"true-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/14\/true-love\/","title":{"rendered":"True Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

Last week I had a great adventure with a special 13-year-old.

As each of our nine grandchildren crosses the threshold into their teens, I\u2019m hoping they will want to join Bah Poo (that would be me) on a trip to a state of their choice. Nico, the oldest of our grands, chose a trip to Maine.

Our travels included two days on Vinalhaven \u2013 a beautiful island in the middle of Penobscot Bay \u2013 at the home of our dear friend and gracious hostess Sue Armstrong. Our very first night featured Maine\u2019s most famous contribution to American cuisine. We each got to dive into a whole lobster.

As the picture above suggests, Nico was enthusiastic. So was I.

The problem with lobsters, of course, is that they have to be cooked \u2013 steamed, actually, for about 17 minutes, after being lowered into a pot of boiling water.

Prior to that moment, each lobster is quite alive. They twitch and move and stare at you with those beady lobster eyes, which seem to be pleading, \u201cDoesn\u2019t fried chicken sound really fantastic right about now?\u201d

The task of lowering each of our crustaceans into the boiling pot fell to me. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do. Most of us are glad to have meat in our diets. But very few 21st<\/sup> century Americans ever have to make actual eye contact with the cows, pigs, chickens, or fish that are heading for our dinner plates or fast-food bags.

We like it that way. It absolves us of a certain amount of emotional anguish. 

Previous generations, of course, couldn\u2019t have imagined purchasing plastic-wrapped meat at a grocery store. That would include everyone in Bible times \u2013 especially God\u2019s chosen people, the descendants of Abraham, who were specifically instructed to bring live animals to the temple on a routine basis and offer them as sacrifices.

Christians celebrate the fact that we are saved by the blood of a lamb \u2013 Jesus, the Lamb of God, as he was identified by John the Baptist (John 1:29).

Some of history\u2019s most famous hymns and songs concern the efficacy of Jesus\u2019 blood \u2013 language intended to connote Jesus\u2019 history-changing accomplishments on the cross. Those include There is Power in the Blood, Nothing But the Blood, Are You Washed in the Blood?, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, At the Cross (Love Ran Red),<\/em> and myriads of others.

If you want to rile up a true believer, ask whether Jesus\u2019 blood is really that big of a deal. According to the New Testament, it most certainly is.

The irony, of course, is a good many of those true believers might faint in the presence of real blood, and have never seriously contemplated the sights, smells, and emotions that typically accompany the bringing of a live animal to the altar.

In recent years, in fact, the whole notion of sacrifice has been called into question. In the Torah \u2013 the first five books of the Bible \u2013 why does God demand so much death? How did sacrifice end up at the center of the most important meal in both Judaism (the Passover) and Christianity (the Lord\u2019s Supper)?

Some years ago a professor in one of my denomination\u2019s seminaries suggested it was time to rewrite the meaning of Jesus\u2019 life and death. \u201cWe don\u2019t need all that blood and stuff,\u201d she said, for which she was roundly assailed. But she no doubt spoke for a growing number of people.

Is sacrifice really essential to a relationship with God?

Let\u2019s put it this way: If we truly wish to experience true love (which Miracle Max in The Princess Bride<\/em> rightly points out is the greatest thing in the world), there is going to be suffering. True love always requires a sacrifice.

For instance, the only way for children to become healthy adults is for loving parents to surrender a gigantic portion of their time, their resources, and their energy.

One of the reasons Nico is such an incredible kid is that my son and daughter-in-law would not only die for him, but have spent 13 years faithfully living<\/em> for him \u2013 nurturing his body, mind, and spirit.

Timothy Keller points out that if moms and dads refuse to make such a sacrifice, their kids will pay the price by being emotionally damaged.

Either way, someone has to pay.<\/em>

If you choose to spend time with an emotionally anguished person, it\u2019s going to cost you something. At some level you\u2019ll feel drained. You will give away some of your fullness so they won\u2019t feel so empty. 

And you\u2019ll wonder from time to time if you\u2019re really making a difference.

Anyone who has ever made a positive impact on your life \u2013 a coach, a spouse, or a teacher \u2013 gave something up so you could be blessed, so you didn\u2019t have to face something that was quite so hard. 

That\u2019s what true love is all about.

That\u2019s what God love is all about, too. Ultimately, it comes down to sacrifice. \u201cThis is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice for our sins\u201d (I John 4:10). 

If you\u2019re wondering about the lobsters, they tasted wonderful. I thanked each one as I lowered it into the pot.

Even as I type these words, my gratitude seems incredibly trivial compared to their sacrifice.

But that, of course, pales in comparison to the distance between what God has done for us and the words of thanks we occasionally muster.

Jesus is the embodiment of true love. He has made the ultimate sacrifice. 

Which is why our lives, in this world and the next, will never be the same.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Last week I had a great adventure with a special 13-year-old. As each of our nine grandchildren crosses the threshold into their teens, I\u2019m hoping they will want to join Bah Poo (that would be me) on a trip to a state of their choice. Nico, the oldest of our grands,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,208],"class_list":["post-3911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-love","tag-sacrifice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3914,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3911\/revisions\/3914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}