Have you ever seen a kid on the kitchen floor banging on their pots and pans? Kids love that. And while it makes a fantastic amount of noise that kids love, the sound it creates is not exactly soothing to listen to in our ears.
Culturally, in the present moment especially, I feel like many of us (myself included), are not too far removed from being a bunch of kids banging on their pots and pans. There’s a lot dominating the press, and whether we are talking about COVID-19, racism and police brutality, or the upcoming election, we are generating an awful amount of noise.
We love what we are doing good enough, and enjoy the moment, but we do such in total disregard for everyone and everything else. We play for ourselves, and nobody else. While banging our pots and pans together, we aren’t exactly being motivated by love.
In today’s podcast, I talk a lot about love, and how we need to “have love” in all that we do. Here’s some talking points from today’s show. Please be sure to listen as I wrestle with these questions and statements.
Talking Points From Today’s Podcast
- I read from 1 Corinthians 13, which is perhaps the most famous passage in the Bible on the subject of love.
- Do we love ideas more than we love people?
- I wonder about this, as it seems we are often willing to make a lot of noise over issues, even issues that concern people. And we say we do it out love. But I question… is that really the case?
- So often it seems we are just talking at one another instead of with one another. Instead of conversation, we are like children, just banging pots and pans at one another as loudly as we can. We’ve become a bunch of noisy nothings.
- We are more interested in forming tribes. When we make it our goal to “own the libs,” or slander someone as a “libtard” or “snowflake” towards liberals, or a “cuck,” “Nazi,” “racist” or something ending with a “-phobe” towards conservatives… I question whether we really love people.
- I feel we’ve become a bunch of noisy nothings. We’ll “”surrender [our bodies] to burned” (1 Corinthians 13:3), even on hot pavement for 8 minutes and 46 seconds if need be, in order to make a point about racism and police brutality. But, do we “have love?” (1 Corinthians 13:2)
- We might identify people as fellow image bearers, as someone created in image of God, and we’ll fight over a lot of causes we believe support this ideal, but when it comes to actually treating someone we disagree with as such, we prove ourselves to love people a lot less than we would say.
- I think Jesus’s teaching to “love your enemies, and pray for those that despitefully use you” (Matthew 5:44) to be the ultimate acid test as to whether we truly love people, or just the idea of people. Anyone can love someone they are supposed to love. Even a godless pagan can love their family. But how good are we at walking in enemy love?
- But more often than not when it comes to enemy love… the Jerry Springer in all of us prefers to come out.
- My friend John Howey and I recently talked about how we are willing to suspend our ethics when it comes to certain areas of our life. When it comes to cheering our favorite sports team, discussions on politics, or the things we tweet about on social media, we gladly set aside our values to fight in the “no holds barred” arena.
- We claim we “have love,” but my question is, “Does love truly have us?”