Love Grown Cold

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference." -Elie Wiesel

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken." -C.S. Lewis

"Shot through the heart and you're to blame-You give love a bad name-I play my part and you play your game-You give love a bad name." -Bon Jovi

"Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold." -Jesus

In a few weeks, Lord willing, I'll be in a boat with my brother.

I talk with my brother Steve regularly, sometimes multiple times a week. He's had people accuse him of being "The most loving person they have ever met."

Steve doesn't take that as a compliment. He takes it as a calling. To Steve, the comment isn't an indicator of his health, but rather an indicator of how sick the people are around him. The complement doesn't boost his spirit as much as it grieves his soul.

You see, my conversations with Steve usually begin with "I'm in the car, and I got 8 minutes." This is because he's leaving one person and heading to another. He's either counseling a marriage, encouraging an addict, or trying to bind up a broken sheep. When I call and he doesn't answer, the text reply is "In a mtg." His wife simply says, "He's built different."

What Steve and I have in common is that both of us have been politely fired by religious organizations. Our deep desire for honest relationship and transparency was a bit too much for the overseers to handle. We were blessed to be chosen by God to be born into a family with generational commitment to faith, family, and fun. Steve constantly says that all we are doing is trying to "steward what God gave us." We're just trying to give away what we have been given. Lord only knows why.

What Steve has said over the phone, around fires, or in a boat is this: "Love has grown cold. People don't know how to love. They don't have a category for it. They don't have game for it."

Love grown cold. Why? Technology? Shallow churches? Pharisaical leadership? Betrayal and abandonment? A reliance on the world to fight our battles? Maybe its the fear in our own hearts to be honest with others about our actual condition?

Or, maybe love growing cold is God's sovereign plan of allowing darkness to do its dirty work so that the Light of the World can bust through.

That would make sense. After all...when Love grew cold...it was only a matter of time before He decided to bust out.

Then He said the most fascinating things.

"I am with you."

"Peace be with you."

"What are you discussing together?"

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your mind?"

"Do you have anything to eat?"

"Friends, haven't you any fish? Throw your net on the right side of the boat."

"Come and have breakfast."

"Do you love me?"

"Feed my lambs. Take care of my sheep. Feed my sheep."

Maybe that's how we can heat things up a bit.