living in harmony.

i've had several thoughts in my head for quite some time now. thoughts like how after reading this article i do not want to ever just simply pass by a musician on the metro. and how the other day while i was waiting for luke to go to the baseball game, there was a pretty amazing sax player jamming out and a girl just stood there, ipod in her ears, rather than participating in the community around her. and how that made me sad.

i've been thinking about love a lot recently. i've been thinking about what it looks like to really love. there are some days when i love people who i choose to surround myself very well. i feel like i can go down the little checklist of 1 corinthians 13 and say, "patient, kind, thoughtful...check, check, check...yes, i know how to love." however, just when i'm feeling pretty good about my capacity to love the people i choose to love, God hits me with a healthy dose of humility. and i thought i'd share that humility with you today.

romans. i've been stuck in romans for the last couple of weeks. wonderful, challenging, and sometimes frustrating romans. while my feelings for paul have always been mixed ones, my feelings for romans never waiver. i. love. this. book. every ridiculously challenging word. and this week, dealing with my borderline personality friend and her husband, hearing some of the things going on down at the glenn beck and sarah palin rally, and with my head swirling with thoughts about freedom of religion and how it pertains to the community center/mosque in nyc, i needed to be reminded of paul's words on love in romans. if nothing else, but to remind me that love is not a checklist, nor is it picking a choosing who i get to love. love is all the time, everybody, joyful action. and, on top of it all, love must be sincere...which means, no checklist (12:9).

after attending a remembrance ceremony for martin luther king jr. yesterday, some friends and i went down to look at the glenn beck rally. i admit, we did not go with the best of intentions. we were curious, and probably not in a good way. but we were a little bit dismayed at the number of christians who came out to support this man who thinks that social justice has no place in the church. frustrated after the rally i opened my bible to romans for a quick quiet time--and bam. paul was talking about unity (i told you, humbled. all the time.) for the remainder of my quiet time i struggled with romans 15:5-7 what does it mean to be unified with the people excited about glenn beck. and are they even christians if they don't believe that social justice in important, when part of Jesus' very essence was welcoming the outcast and the marginalized? i voiced my question to luke: do i really have to be unified with "those" people? and luke's reply...well, if they are christians, then yes, and if they are enemies, we are called to love them.

live in harmony with one another. do not be proud. do not be conceited. these are the rules we are called to live by. that is what love is.

there are more thoughts that will probably come out this week pertaining to this subject, especially to verses 18 and 21. but this blog is already long enough. and i've confessed enough of my bias and frustration for now. what about you? who do you struggle to love and be unified with?