"For God so loved the world...." John 3:16
The love of God, of Infinite Substance and Divine Glory, so rich and pure and measureless and strong, is not aimless. It does not fritter about without direction, madness without method, all sentiment and no will. There is a will in the divine heartbeat. Its thunderous rhythms move to a steady, purposeful pulse. The Love of God is Acting as well as Being, a holy verb as much as a sacred noun. An unstoppable overflowing as wild as a flood yet as directional as a river. It is like an arrowhead or the tip of a spear. It is a sword sharpened with much thought and thrust with great intent, the intent to draw blood.
To where, exactly, is this love aiming? To what destination has it set its mark? It is this world of ours that bears the awesome burden, the eternal weight of that living glory. It is to this world that He comes, this world of shaggy rocks and bleeding seas, whose lands are perforated with the tombs of men. A world of barren wastes and lush landscapes and all the hopes and horrors of every man, woman, and child that has ever been sung or said or screamed. A world of Sin, of howling narcissism and vain minds, from the highest to the smallest, both oppressor and oppressed. It is all one boat, and we all are its drunken crew, sailing without mast or rudder, tossed about by every wind and wave of doctrine and doubt and fad and fashion and plan and scheme and vision and paranoia and panic and fear and failure. Maddeningly and recklessly we fling ourselves upon the deck, upon each other, and into the boiling sea.
It is to this, this ship of fools, this land of white-washed vanities and seared hearts, it is to here and nowhere else that the holy wind is blowing, stirring, rolling onward with furious passion and purpose and joy. Despising all shame, path unmovable, eyes wide open, gaze fierce and full of meaning.
-Jon Vowell (c) 2012
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