Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

'Well Sam!' he said, 'What about it? I am leaving the Shire as soon as ever I can - in fact I have made up my mind now not even to wait a day at Crickhollow, if it can be helped.'

- 'Very good, sir!'

'You still mean to come with me?'

-'I do.'

'It is going to be very dangerous, Sam. It is already dangerous. Most likely neither of us will come back.'

- 'If you don't come back, sir, then I shan't, that's certain,' said Sam. '"Don't you leave him!" they said to me. "Leave him!" I said. "I never mean to. I am going with him, if he climbs to the Moon; and if any of those Black Riders try to stop him, they'll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with," I said.'

- The Fellowship of the Ring

A true warrior does not only battle fiercely - in equal measure he loves just as fiercely. In fact it is the ferocity of his love that draws him into the majority of the battles he fights. Just look at Samwise Gamgee: he is no fighter by training. For goodness sakes - he's a simple gardner from the Shire, a peaceful, forgotten place that hasn't seen the flash of steel in over a hundred years - not since the Brandywine River froze and foul-hearted wolves from the wild invaded the East Farthing. But gardner or not: threaten the things that he loves the most, and "they'll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with!" Nor did circumstances prove the gardner's boast unfounded. Love for his master compels him to step up and play the role of the hero on countless occasions on their desperate trek to the Mountain of Doom. In a personal letter written by J.R.R. Tolkien, the author as much as confesses that Sam, and not Frodo, was the true hero of his story.

In contrast, the common saying "I'm a lover, not a fighter" is simplistic tripe that creates a false dichotomy where there should not be one. It is the lovers that fight the fiercest: they have the most to lose if they are bested in the battle and the Shadow is allowed to envelope the people or things that they love with such reckless abandon.

But then, there are a lot of foolish things being said about "love" these days. To our shame, a great many of those things are actually being said by Christians. Honestly, for the one group of people on the planet who believe that Love is the central theme of all created history as we know it, there remains some deep confusion as to what "Love" even means. Most of this confusion is born of our desire to know that we are "doing okay", that we are "good Christians". We know that Love is the point of the Christian life. We also know that which we find it within ourselves to live up to along this score. And most of the time the two just don't match. So what then can we do? Admit that we have yet to fully grasp the life blood, the essence, the deep heart, the true meaning of the Christian life -- an admission that would throw our lives into shambles, drive us to our knees, and reopen our once-closed investigation into discovering True Life? Or do we follow a much simpler path to inner peace by simply re-writing our definition of love: lowering the standard and bringing "love" within reach of the kind of people we find ourselves to be?

As Christians, we have in recent generations come to believe that "Christian love" is something that can be defined as an action, or as a commitment. Who hasn't heard the statement "You don't have to like them - you just have to love them!" While treating others in a loving manner is a wonderful thing, it is not the same as loving them. Despite what people are saying, Love is not an action! Of course true love will lead to action - how could it not? But actions can be faked, actions can be imitated, actions can flow from countless motives. And when you love...well, you won't be asking yourself, "Is this the real thing? Is this love?"

Have you ever asked yourself how precisely your deep heart longs to be loved? What a love that would satisfy your inconsolable ache might look like? Has anyone ever loved you in that way? Do you even know God's love as that kind of love? Or has all this talk about "loving without actually liking", or this "love is a commitment, love is an act of the will" left you feeling like God loves you without actually liking you - that He loves you because he made a commitment to love you as an act of His will...and to be quite honest, if He were free to choose...well...

Is that sort of love the answer to your deep ache?

Do you wish to be loved disinterestedly? Offhandedly? As a project or a program? For a week or two? Maybe even a semester? Compassion is a wonderful human quality: it ought not be confused with Love.

The love that answers your deep ache is a love that offers itself completely, "like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done about it" (Shakespeare in Love). It is a love that is strong, fierce, and undying. It is a love that would sacrifice all for you, without hesitation...and be happy to do it.

If you are having a hard time getting a grip on what this kind of love would be like, try imagining that the only thing you had ever known for a definition of love was the relationship between Samwise Gamgee the gardner and his master Frodo Baggins. Is something like that what you long for? Is something like that what you are giving to someone else? If it is a "lesser" love that you are giving: if your own ache is for a different kind of love, what makes you think what you are giving will be enough for those around you??

We may never fully experience this sort of love in these Shadowlands. Call it an impossible dream. Fine. We are still in process. But we dare not reorient our definition of love to fit our experience - not unless we want to cut the last hanging thread that ties us to our Eternal Home and the Love that has made us, and has watched over us, and is waiting to hold us in it's everlasting arms until every Shadow has been buried beneath the water-worn rocks at the bottom of the River of Joy.

The love you long for is real.

And it is coming.

In the meantime, don't settle for the counterfeit.

In unashamed defense of the "reckless raging fury that they call the Love of God",

(-Rich Mullins, adapted from G.K. Chesterton)

Derrick and David