What's the word?
I'm back. I know it has been awhile. But I'm here now. Happy to be connecting with you again.
Last week I was meeting with my spiritual director and I was sharing with her that I think my definition of love has been changing and I hope that is it aligning more with God's love. We were talking specifically about love's ability to endure tension. My nature disposition is to avoid internal tension. I don't like when things feel unfinished or I feel unprepared. I don't like conflict - internal or external. Uncertainty stirs anxiety in me. Chaos and imperfections can cause irritability. I think you get the picture of what I am like without God's power working in me!
But what I've come to realize is that God can handle a lot of tension. There is so much that is "not yet" about this world, the church, me and yet God loves us all! He is for us. He is with us. He is gracious and merciful towards us. This is such good news... and so needed!
So while I am becoming convinced that God "can handle a lot of tension", I began wondering about the terminology. Is that Biblical? When is God described this way? As I thought, a word from the King James Version of the Bible came to mind: "longsuffering". I find it to be a very good description of the capacity to handle tension. The passage I remembered it from is 2 Peter 3:9
KJV
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
We wonder why God doesn't act quicker, why Jesus hasn't already returned, but God has His reasons and one of them is His longsuffering toward us so that more people have time to repent and believe.
Now, as I type this, "longsuffering" keeps getting underlined indicating that it is a spelling error. The word doesn't even exist in our modern English. So what word do we use now? Let's look at another translation of the verse.
NIV
"The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance"
Patient. That is our modern way to talk about being willing to endure internal tension, particularly as we wait. Wait for change. Wait for time to pass. Wait for healing, reconciliation, personal growth, and more. As I consider my original point about my definition of love, it is kind of amusing that the most famous passage on love in the Bible starts like this:
"Love is patient"...1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient, it is longsuffering, it can handle a lot of tension. On one hand, I have known this for years. But on another, the part of me that is being transformed at a deep level, it is fresh and new and it gives me strength to endure the feeling of longsuffering. To let the tension exist within me and not try to end it prematurely through distraction, attempts at comfort (chocolate chips come to mind here), or various other ways we get out of being patient. Learning to be content and be in tension - or be patient - is living in a way that trusts God. It is walking in the love of God. And that's the path I want to be on.
In Christ,
Tracy
Last week I was meeting with my spiritual director and I was sharing with her that I think my definition of love has been changing and I hope that is it aligning more with God's love. We were talking specifically about love's ability to endure tension. My nature disposition is to avoid internal tension. I don't like when things feel unfinished or I feel unprepared. I don't like conflict - internal or external. Uncertainty stirs anxiety in me. Chaos and imperfections can cause irritability. I think you get the picture of what I am like without God's power working in me!
But what I've come to realize is that God can handle a lot of tension. There is so much that is "not yet" about this world, the church, me and yet God loves us all! He is for us. He is with us. He is gracious and merciful towards us. This is such good news... and so needed!
So while I am becoming convinced that God "can handle a lot of tension", I began wondering about the terminology. Is that Biblical? When is God described this way? As I thought, a word from the King James Version of the Bible came to mind: "longsuffering". I find it to be a very good description of the capacity to handle tension. The passage I remembered it from is 2 Peter 3:9
KJV
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
We wonder why God doesn't act quicker, why Jesus hasn't already returned, but God has His reasons and one of them is His longsuffering toward us so that more people have time to repent and believe.
Now, as I type this, "longsuffering" keeps getting underlined indicating that it is a spelling error. The word doesn't even exist in our modern English. So what word do we use now? Let's look at another translation of the verse.
NIV
"The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance"
Patient. That is our modern way to talk about being willing to endure internal tension, particularly as we wait. Wait for change. Wait for time to pass. Wait for healing, reconciliation, personal growth, and more. As I consider my original point about my definition of love, it is kind of amusing that the most famous passage on love in the Bible starts like this:
"Love is patient"...1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient, it is longsuffering, it can handle a lot of tension. On one hand, I have known this for years. But on another, the part of me that is being transformed at a deep level, it is fresh and new and it gives me strength to endure the feeling of longsuffering. To let the tension exist within me and not try to end it prematurely through distraction, attempts at comfort (chocolate chips come to mind here), or various other ways we get out of being patient. Learning to be content and be in tension - or be patient - is living in a way that trusts God. It is walking in the love of God. And that's the path I want to be on.
In Christ,
Tracy
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