aeq@pucc-h (Sargent) (01/17/84)
An almost philosophical journey, with direct real-life applications: Recently I have been wrestling with the question, "How can it be right for me to need/want love from people when I have God's love?" To me it appeared that any need for anything other than God was a sign of weakness and indeed of sin; that a Christian worth his salt would not need anything other than God; and that in the ideal case, God would meet all my needs by direct ministry to the inner being. You have probably already spotted some flaws in that: Physical needs can be met only physically--and I don't necessarily mean sex (that's a desire, not quite a need); "everyone needs 4 hugs a day", physical hugs, and one can't get them in prayer to a spirit God. Also, way back in Genesis, God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone". But by the time of the New Testament, we had Paul saying that it would be better for everyone to be like him, i.e. unmarried; indeed, if I recall I Corinthians 7 anywhere near correctly, he implied that it was a sign of weakness to be unable to control desire for a mate (or at least I drew that inference). So how could it be all right for any Christian to desire a mate, indeed to want/need any human being at all (other than for those 4 hugs)? The first real crack in that idea came from the realization that it is perfectly all right to accept love if someone offers it to you (and this includes seemingly little, individual loving acts, not only a lifetime's devotion). Indeed, to accept love is itself loving, since rejecting love is certainly unloving. But still--granted that it's all right to accept love, how could it be right to need love from anyone other than God? Consider the words of Jesus, roughly as follows: "A new command I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you." Obviously God wants US to love. It therefore follows that God does not intend to meet all our needs by direct ministry to the inner being; if He did, there would be no loving left for us to do. This is not a duty; it's an opportunity! God wants us to be like Him, and by asking us to do some of the loving that He could do, he is allowing us to become like Him, to learn to love as He does. But one further inference may be drawn: If God does not intend to meet all our needs directly, then it is perfectly all right to need/want love from other humans. I've offered this to you on the chance that it may be helpful; it is tremendously freeing to me. -- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq