Because

(A poem written by Rhode Island poet laureate Lisa Starr).

Because

Lately she's been falling in love everywhere-
at the market, in the pharmacy, always in the cafeteria
sliding her tray over the metal rails,
last week with the hands of the attendant at a gas station.
It's not right, she knows, but still, she can't help it.
Sometimes it happens all day long.

Yesterday at the campus it was everything again-
The way the postmaster, on lunch break, went whistling
past,
or how the Frisbee players sing in the quad.
The way some students stay after class, that usually gets
her.
Cashiers, people who sing at stoplights-all fair game.
Cab drivers-forget it.

With ice cream scoopers, with their little paper hats,
it is often love at first sight,
and she will never forget the boy at the sandwich shop-
the way he said "miss, would you like anything to drink?"
to the 80-year-old woman in front of her,
then when it was her turn, said "Ma'am instead.

Later today, blessed by all this loving
she will make some tea and play a violin concerto
for her dog who is deaf.
She will play the music as loud as it will go
because she can, and because somehow, he'll hear it,
and he will stand on the porch of the fine yellow house,
glowing.

She will be all choked up
because the lawn chairs
have never been this white before,
and because, tired ears flapping
in a soft Autumn breeze,
the old dog will bark back his joy.

Is this how love is? Falling in love with the everyday routine? Or, is it something more? Does God call us to love material things, as the main character in this poem does or does He call us to love himself, giving a face and feet and hands to a world, displaying a love that gave it all?

I do not deny that God calls us to love. I believe that unlike the woman in this poem, that God calls us to love like Jesus; not to fall in love with the everyday routines of life (i.e. a morning coffee, that ritual phone call to a friend). His love that he calls us to emobdy goes far beyond a grammatically correct love letter. He wants us to embody his character so that we become more like Him. From experience and conversations with friends, God wants his people to fall in love with the brokenness of everyday; not so that we are hurt and physically incapable of of moving on, but to love our world with the spectacles of Jesus. I believe that he wants us to look at a friend who is hurting inside contemplating thoughts of suicide and depression and love on them. Not that kind of love that responds with an "I'm sorry" but that kind of love that envisions a new beginning for that person; the kind of love that will sit on the couch and just listen; the kind of love that raises others higher than themselves.

True love does not divorce after an argument. Rather, it recognizes that love is the basis of everything; it is a oneness, a wholeness; a place where everything is put in its right place. Love runs the risk of getting hurt and being abandoned. Jesus was the perfect example of that. He took our infirmities on the cross with himself to die. In turn, we abandoned him by choosing the path out of his designed plan for us. The Garden of Eden in Genesis was a gift to Adam and Eve from God. Instead, they prostituted that gift with selfish desires and an "I want" mentality.

Love requires us to go beyond the limits of time and space to see a person for who God really made them to be. It's allowing ourselves to get "naked" (figuratively, of course) before each other and being unashamed just like the first man and woman were. So, how do we remain true to God, to ourselves, and to our friends?

It's stripping off the layers of clothing we have covered ourselves with. It's being completely and brutally honest with one another out of love in an effort to change and to become more like Christ. Here's a question that we should be asking ourselves everyday: "Do I love God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind?" and "Do I love my neighbor as myself?" God says that we can't have one without the other. You can't have orange juice without the oranges.

Love is more than just kissing and hold hands. It is an action. Let's love with our hearts and be agents of change.