Recycled Love

This Sunday our pastor inverted an interesting question during his morning sermon.  "If we were as gentle and careful with each other as we are with going green to save the planet how different would our relationships...humanity be?"  I have been pondering this thought for a few days now...recycled love...what does that mean?  If I decided to "go green" with the people around me, especially the ones to whom I have a relationship with, what would the outcomes of my recycling efforts look like? Is recycled love better than new love? Can love and kindness be reused to make something new; a better emotional resource that can be shaped into another useful purpose?  I ponder this and say I think recycled love is a wonderful concept- like the love I received as a child from my grandmother. Thinking of that tiny lady in her pink night cap putting me to sleep while rubbing my petite back and singing the 'Pennies from Heaven song, as I drifted away into a peaceful sleep brings sheer joy to my heart.  That was gentle love in action given to me and it echoes in my heart as I too rub my boys back's and sing them into a dream state.  My grandmother has taken up residence in eternity over 11 years ago but the love keeps on giving in my heart.  There is a quote that says prayers are deathless.  How powerful to know that her prayers poured out in love over her family are very much alive today as I sit and type my thoughts, even though we are on different sides of the veil! Song of Solomon 8:6 reads, "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is a strong as death, its jealousy as unyielding as the grave.  It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.  If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love; it would be utterly scorned." Love is powerful.  The love we give has the ability to burn like fire and to continue on never being washed away.  Old love. The love you see when a senior couple are walking along a sidewalk still holding hands and smiling..they have been giving out love to each other over and over again and it just keeps turning into something more; deeper; committed; eternal; one. As 30 somethings we get caught up in the romance, passion, the outside appearance, the excitement, the fast track, meddling with "affairs" of all different sorts, but those who hang on, who are gentle with their commitment "Til death do us part," experience something like that little triangle made with three arrows on the bottom of plastic water bottles. It doesn't end it keeps turning into more; being useful to the involved parties; husband, wife, and God.

Let's go another step further.  What if we take the parts of those intimate relationships that would be easier to just dispose of. The non Kodak moments that we would rather toss into a dark can never to be seen again. What if we instead believe that even the throw away parts of those relationships could be useful if turned into something else...where would we be?  In the living word of God the book of Isaiah talks clearly about "recycling"  the parts of us, the parts of our relationships that are not lovely. To begin with he states..Isaiah 61:3 "To bestow a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."  So I can toss the ashes of my burning emotions, the grief of losing life's most valuable, and my most fearful; desperate moments into my hearts "recycle bin" and I, a believer of the Holy Spirit who is my helper will dump these mucky useless chains and turn them into beauty, gladness, and praise.  

Yesterday I toured the museum of African American Art.  Inside they had an entire display of baskets made from grasses dating back from the early 1800's to today.  Absolutely breathtaking designs and intricate work.  Who knew that grass could be used to make something so useful, decorative, and beautiful.  When I finished walking through the museum I visited the gift shop with wares from the African people.  Inside I noticed these funny looking lizards lined up on a glass shelf waiting for purchase by all of the tourists.  Looking closer I noticed how colorful and unique these little lizards were. Getting even closer, the eyesight is starting to fail, I noticed they were made from pop cans that had been cut up.  I chuckled inside as I thought how creative- our old pop cans can be used to make something simply fun and creative. Sometimes the garbage parts of our relationships must go under the refiners fire and become, through a gut wrenching process, a new way of thinking, doing, or acting. Like the grass that must be cut, dried, and through much work of the artisan, tightly woven back and forth until it begins to take shape becoming formed into a basket, useful to it's maker.  Thankfully there are those occasions when something that we are distasteful to about those we love most can simply be turned into a chuckle and loving laughter as the oil of gladness makes the argument, the clashing of opinions, or the "I'm in it to win it" mentality like a colorful little lizard made from a soda can!

I must admit..I'm incapable to recycle the yucks of myself and the connections of my loved ones on my own. Just as I in my own home and in capable of turning my used plastic bottles, soup cans, and outdated newspapers into something else.  I must gather them up and take them to the recycling bin.  Sure, I may try to muster up a "positive attitude" in the midst of utter madness in my soul, but it will eventually be known as counterfeit, useless to me and others and usually just as; if not more destructive than my original sorrow.  Through surrendering and repentance,I, as a follower of Christ, can allow the Holy Spirit living in my soul to take these recyclables that have piled up within, and he will form them into the useful tools promised in these verses.  We have all seen it, the sheer tragedy of ones life turned into that which we never thought it could be.  The good news is, life can be lived even though the tragedy is not erased.  I just finished Mary Beth Chapman's book, "Choosing to See." She has lived through such a grief I have not known, tragically loosing a child.  A must read. It is evident that her soul recycler has worked, not to remove the loss or replace the child, but to allow her to once again by clothing her with his handmade garment of praise, experience "joy" at their first born's wedding months after burying their precious daughter.  Enabled her from the depths of her being to communicate to us the sojourner how effective her Creator's truth has brought her through each hour since that day as he covers her with his oil of gladness in the human despair that she faces on earth..  And she looks forward in hope to a "green day" when she is rejoined with her daughter and the Giver of Life Himself, where they will receive the crown of beauty as the ashes are exchanged. 

So today's thought as the old saying goes is that what comes around goes around...what are you sending around?   Recycle love for a greener relationship tomorrow!