I have an older desk chair that I bartered for way-back-when in 1992. It definitely has that ‘80’s chrome business look and sports a green seat cover that has never matched anything in any room it’s been in over the years, but it has held up well and is still very comfortable and supportive in all the right places. It has also traveled across country on numerous occasions during our various moves over the years.
Lately though, it has developed a loud screech
when I rotate it to the left or right… so much so that it definitely has gained
the mis-taste of my dog… and tends to pull my concentration away from whatever
story I am writing at the moment and make me focus on the sound it makes… I’ve
been known to get so involved in my writing, be it this blog, or a puppet skit
or a play or a song… that I lose all sense of time and activity around me… only
to be drawn back, in the past, to reality at the sound of my sweet wife’s voice gently
calling “JIM!”
I’ve tried my usual go-to remedy of WD 40 on all the moving
parts and springs that I can see, but to no avail. My next step will have to include a few tools
in order to remove the seat and explore the unseen workings underneath! But it doesn’t make the ear-piercing noise
every time and in fact, I had forgotten about it temporarily, until I was
reminded of it this morning when I read from I Corinthians 13:1 in The Message
Bible which declared,
“If I speak with human
eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking
of a rusty gate.”
I’ve opened some gates and car doors alike, that make a lot
of uncomfortable-to-the-ears noises when they are opened… haven’t you? The driver’s side door on my parent’s old
1951 Chevy definitely liked to screech at times when it was opened… especially
when I would slowly and romantically open the door for my high school
sweetheart to slide onto the front seat next to me. The high-pitched sound tended to spoil the
ambiance of the moment after a dinner date at a nice restaurant and a quiet
handholding walk back to the car!
The King James version references this sound to that of a “tinkling
cymbal” with the word “tinkling” meaning, “to vociferate, that
is, (by implication) to wail; figuratively to clang, or to raise the war cry.”
(Strong’s/Mounce) In other words… it is
not only an irritating sound, but can cause one to become anxious, like as the
sound of an enemy’s war cry… sort of like the fear that the Confederate Rebel
Yell elicited in the ranks of the northern armies on the battlefield during the
Civil War.
I learned many lessons about
the God kind of LOVE, along the way of our final journey with
Piper’s declining health. I have first-hand
experience of words of LOVE being spoken without the actions and
heart motive to back them up. This false
interpretation of God’s true LOVE resulted with the sound
penetrating my ears with the same power and discomfort of a loud, ear-piercing screech. On the other hand, I have had people I didn’t
even know stop and share heart-felt words of LOVE, that they
offered to back up with action, that were received into my hurting heart like
the sweet, soothing salve of the balm of Gilead (See: Jeremiah 8:22).
I Corinthians 13:7 informs
us that the DOING of the God kind of LOVE,
“Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best,
Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.” (MSG)
I discovered
the hard way… that the imitations
of God’s LOVE can stop the progress of God’s intervention in our
lives. They can easily cause the one on
the receiving end of such false information to be side tracked into questioning
their own faith or be drawn into the arena of anger that generates fear and
unforgiveness… while the purveyors of such mistaken and thoughtless words can
end up losing all positive contact with those with whom they spoke. For those who either knowingly or unknowingly
share such untruths, it leads down a slippery slope that can eventually end up
without a way out!
I am pretty sure that most
of you would agree that true Godly LOVE isn’t always the easiest
or most convenient way to enter into someone’s life, but it definitely is the
right choice to bring a healing balm into the midst of any situation. I like the way that The Passion Translation
states the Apostle Paul’s concluding thoughts of the God kind of LOVE
while we all wait for the second coming of Christ saying:
“Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet
love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful
prize for which you run.” I Corinthians 13:13
That’s gonna be my plan…
to live the rest of my life with the God Kind of LOVE in my
words, actions and heart, being the beautiful prize for which I run!
How about you?
I pray that you all have a
spectacular weekend. Ours is supposed to
turn warm and sunny… with a noticeable absence (I hope) of the strong
winds we’re still experiencing today!
These winds may not emit a screeching sound, but they do vibrate
off the trees, windows and our glass chines on the front porch to produce a low,
tingling roar that most definitely is unsettling to my dog! He and I will both be happy when they stop!
But until then, we are… as
well as I believe that you are… EXPECTING God’s best in our
lives!
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