Surprised by Love

Have you ever felt your heart

whisked away into a surprising

and mysterious Love?

This is week 7 for the Book Study over at Michele Morin's site: Living Our Days, as she has invited us to join in for the discussion of C.S. Lewis' "Till We Have Faces." I must admit that after last week's (click here for my thoughts on that) intense passages, where Orual chose such a dark path, I had a hard time wanting to read what would happen next. So, when I finally picked up the book to read again, I was expecting to find the wasteland feelings that Orual was set to walk in. However, I was not expecting to find a bright spot in a love that was manifest in an almost hidden event.  

My own heart is finding a surprising Love

from my Dear Lord, as He persists in calling me to a place of Stillness in His Heart.

Orual and her Greek Slave/Tutor, "The Fox," continue to have a deep relationship, even as Orual faces the prospect of the King's imminent death, and her progression into becoming the Queen. As one of her first duties to protect the Kingdom, Orual is thrust into the prospect of a dangerous duel with a neighboring Kingdom's wicked Prince.  Of course, The Fox is against the prospect of Orual taking up the sword-fight herself, even though he finds out that she has been secretly coached by Bardia in the skill.  He argues with her, and pleads for her to give it up. But then the next day he approaches her with this thought, that could almost be brushed over in the quickness of the day's events:

"Daughter, I did badly last night. I think this offer to fight the Prince yourself is foolish, and what's more, unseemly. But I was wrong to weep and beg and try to force you by your Love. Love is not a thing to be so used."

I expected the story to stop, and for all to pay attention right then! Wasn't this the very thing that Oraul needed to hear about true love? Wasn't this the very thing that she had herself tried to force on Psyche in her own selfishness?  But no, the story moved on, and my heart was left to wonder at the brief encounter.  Until pages later, after the King finally succumbed to his illness, and Orual was made Queen, her first official duty was to grant her Dear Fox his freedom.  She realized what that freedom meant for one who had so longed for his own country for a lifetime of years. Oh! In her giving him that right, she faced not just Psyche gone forever, and not just years of wasteland ahead of her as she felt the god's anger with her, now she faced the very real possibility of one who had been more a true Father to her than her own Father had ever been, walking out of her life also. Of course he would choose the freedom of finding his own country again. Who would not?

I have known those longings

They feel as lifetime journeys

Even if time does not agree

The heart knows a different beat

And looks for a country

A Heaven Home

Fairer than any I see before me. 

 

 
But after a long night of inner struggles, The Fox meets Oraul with these words:

"Wish me well, daughter. For I have won a battle. What's best for his fellows must be best for a man. I am but a limb of the Whole and must work in the socket where I'm put. I'll stay."

And once again, C.S. Lewis had me weeping when I least expected to do so. From the heart of a Greek Slave, who held onto Philosophy and Rational Thinking as his sole foundation, he yet understood the depth of what True Love looked like.  He embraced his part in the Story, in Orual's life, as best for himself even if it required his own surrender.

How many times have I heard

my Lord whisper 

deep into my heart

"Choose the better way."

"Choose the way of Love."

 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

John 15:13 NIV 

 

In these days approaching the Season of Lent, 
My heart is drawn to the One who faced the ultimate test of True Love.

His heart won the battle

And gave what I could never give

The Truest Sacrifice 

of Love:
His Life for mine.

How will I respond
to Love that is so pure?

Could I choose 
to surrender my will for His?

Could we see 
What only Love would know,
Our hearts would run
to give Him all.

 If you are looking for a great Devotional
especially for the Lenten Season,
my blogging friend,
Susan Chamberlain Shipe,
has just finished this beautiful book.
Find it Here at Amazon.

If you are interested in reading any of the posts pertaining to the book study of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, you can find an index to the series by clicking here.

 

I'm linking today over at:
#LiveFreeThursday, Suzie Eller 

Love or Self?

February, the month of LOVE, and I could easily rush through it all. Think that I've been here, done that, the years have proven timeless for me, and Love becomes easy and same, day after day.


But here it is, week 5 in this online book study of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, and my heart is shattered by the conviction that

the depth of LOVE can never truly be plumbed.

What have I really learned about loving

and giving away my own rights?

Midpoint through this book, and things have come crashing down around Orual and her sister Psyche.  What seemed like love to Orual has shown itself to be something deeper and uglier. When Orual is confronted with Psyche's choice to live out her days in a place that is incomprehensible to Orual, she makes a choice to try to "rescue" Psyche for her own good.  But Psyche wants no rescue, and she cannot convince Orual that her choices are her own to make. Desperate to have Psyche back in her own world, Orual does the unthinkable and threatens Psyche that if she doesn't leave it all to come with her, then Orual would be willing to go to the awful depths of taking Psyche's life and then her own.

My heart was crushed at the awful plans that Orual laid out.

But a deeper conviction pierced through me when I read Psyche's response:

"Oh, Orual--to take my love for you, because you know it goes down to my very roots and cannot be diminished by any other new love, and then to make of it a tool, a weapon, a thing of policy and mastery, an instrument of torture--I begin to think I never knew you."

How could Orual take that love, and use it in such an awful act of manipulation?  I could not comprehend the depth of her will. And yet . . .

Have I not

sullied the Name of Love

when I have asked for it

on my own terms?

Have I not

misused my own desires

to label my Dear One's

needs as theirs

when mine

were the answers

I sought? 

What hope

is there 

for one such as I?

How can Love

ever be

full and free

selfless

and pure?

The Words from my Lord have been spoken so often that they can become one more way to rush through a season that has become artificial and man-made. But God's Words do not become LESS TRUE by our own misuse. No, His Love becomes even more pure  when placed against the starkness of our own selfish desires. 

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, NIV 


Only Jesus can transform my own loving
to look more like His.
Only Jesus has fully known
true selfless love.

And when my heart is stirred to
taste TRUE LOVE
then His Spirit
is the One who is
doing the stirring
within me. 



Will you join me and ask for
His Love
to inhabit our hearts?

May our Lord Jesus
flood the corners
of selfishness that still lurk
hidden away,
and show us the way
to love our Dear Ones
with His 
Heart of Grace.

Oh Glorious Freedom
The Love that floods
From Jesus
brings with it
His Glimpse into the Beauty
that is His Picture
of our Dear Ones.
  

If you are interested in reading any of the posts pertaining to the book study of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces, you find an index to the series by clicking here.

 

I am linking today with:

Suzie Eller, #LiveFreeThursday