Stagnant Pond Or Flowing Waters?

Stagnant Pond or Flowing Waters?

I wonder why it’s such a compliment to tell a woman she looks like a breath of spring, but not to tell her she looks like the end of hard winter. Isn’t that the same thing?

I wonder why it pleases her to say time stands still when you look into her face, but not to say her face would stop a clock. Why?

I wonder why people who punish a child for lying will tell the same child, "Just say I’m not home."

I wonder why, when the preacher says, "In closing..." he doesn’t.

I wonder why a speaker who "needs no introduction" gets one anyway.

Many things in this world could cause us to wonder. But one of the most strange to me is that why God would love us.

The movie “Grease” is a fun 50’s musical about a guy and a girl who fall in love. The prim and proper Sandy, played by Olivia Newton John, gives her heart to Danny, played by John Travolta. Unfortunately her heart is not handled with care and she finds herself being hurt by the one that she loves. Not wanting to give up, Olivia sings the song “Hopelessly Devoted to You.” Although she had been neglected and hurt, she would not stop loving her true love.

Why? Why does Sandy keep loving Danny? Why is she “hopelessly devoted” to someone who keeps trampling on her feelings, saying not so nice things about her when she’s not around, acting like she doesn’t exist when his friends are by his side?

We see this situation happening around us every day. God is “Hopelessly Devoted” to us. He loves us without reservation, holding nothing back.

Why? Why does God keep loving us? Why is He “hopelessly devoted” to someone who keeps trampling on His feelings, uses His name in vain, gets upset when He doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want them answered, acts like He doesn’t exist whenever our friends are around? It seems curious.

God wants us to remain in His love, but do we? To often we find ourselves as another song says, “Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places.”

Love is a complex word. Ask 100 people what love means to them and you’ll probably get at least 50 different answers. Maybe more. People say: I love my wife. I love my cats. I love cherry cheesecake. I love to garden. I love to paint. I love old movies. I love.. well, you fill in the blank. Love is a very complex word. These mentioned (and others), I would hope, are different types of love.

Often love can be misplaced or misdirected. People end up “looking for love in all the wrong places”. They ignore pure love and seek impure love. Couples grow apart and one seeks love from an outside source. One, or maybe both, start to have an affair. They meet in secret looking for something that belongs only in a marriage of husband and wife. They end up divorced or living in the shell of something God considers sacred.

Women (and I’m sure men, even though we don’t often hear that side) often stay in abusive relationships. One spouse is possessive and won’t allow the other to have outside friends or one demands that the other wait on them hand and foot. Maybe one is verbally abusive or, worse yet, physically abusive. Why won’t the one being abused leave? The most common answer? “Because I love him (or her).” They’re looking for love in all the wrong places.

All of us – all of us – need affection. From the moment of birth, we reach out for the warm embrace of our mother’s arms. As children we would climb into dad’s lap, to feel a pat on the back, to wrestle with or be tickled by someone who loves us. And that need doesn’t disappear as we approach and enter adulthood. We may try to deny it, we may learn to disguise it, but the need for affection knows no age.

Now, some of us here today may feel the need for affection more keenly, more acutely than others. God has created all of us with a need for human affection that can only be met when other humans express affection to us, and for some of us, the need to be loved is one of our top needs.

Think with me for just a moment. If you were given only ONE WORD to describe God, what would that word be? What single word best describes His heart for people? What word best describes how God has related to you? Have you thought of your word? Okay now keep your word locked in your mind, and don’t change it. What was your word? (The majority should choose “love” or a form of the word.)