Being, In Love

Every normal teenager, and then as a young adult, knows about "being in love," and being there more than once before getting serious about a "one and only." Thoughts about making a commitment and about marriage come sooner or later. In the meantime there is a self to be discovered in each friendship and relationship.

Those who understand their sexuality as a gift of God bring to all of their relationships a different set of values than do those without a faith connection. When we view each other as persons created in the image of God, we place a value on ourselves and on other human beings to whom we relate. Faith gives us eyes to see spiritual dimensions of being.

Wisdom for lovers, whether young or of an older generation, is to share with each other your faith journeys and also your understanding of your own sexuality as God's gift.

Our human love finds its origin in God's love. To know oneself as one
loved by God is to be freed to love fully and selflessly. That love also provides the power that sustains each of us in our being and in being
committed to faithfulness.

Of all the spiritual gifts, love is the greatest.

BEING, in Love

Take a look at the options, and I will show you the best way to make love.

If I speak of sexuality either in human terms or with God-talk, but speak up without love, I strike a sour note and send a deceptive signal.

And if I have power to promise compatibility and to probe the mystery of sexual intimacy, and wisdom to know all I ever wanted to know about sex (not afraid to ask);

And if by faith I remove all the mountains of anxiety and fear, but approach self-understanding without self-love and knowledge without wisdom, I become someone easy to forget.

If I care enough to send the very best and if I give my body-self, male or female, to another in burning desire, but present my body without giving love, I gain nothing that touches the soul.

Love in true union waits for mutual satisfaction and embodies gentleness; it does not dominate nor act crudely.

Love that is passionate does not make self-serving demands; it refuses to be agitated and puts its resentments on hold; it finds no joy in failure, but rejoices in every pleasure given and received.

Love in deep intimacy bares the soul,
bearing the burden of another's history;
listens, believing the best within the bond of body and soul;
trusts, hoping for God's gift of unity;
perseveres, enduring all the tests of time.

Love is endless. As for every prediction and astrological sign, they will be blown away; as for the languages of romance and of flowers, they will cease; as for contracts and covenants, they shall turn to dust.

For what we can say for sure is a head trip and our horoscopes are flawed; but when love in commitment has claimed us and we are made whole, the unholy will disappear.

When I was still immature in my sexuality, I spoke as a child of infantile needs and expectations; I thought as a child of traditional male and female roles;

I reasoned like a child about guilt and original sin.

When I came to maturity in my sexual being, I gave up simplistic ways of speaking and thinking and reasoning.

Now I see distorted images, mirroring the real world, the world in which the Word is made flesh and dwells among us (full of grace and truth).

Once I had but a shallow understanding of my nature and destiny; now, beheld and beholding, face to face, I accept myself even as I am accepted.

So abides faith in the God who made us sexual beings and called it very good; hope that our sexuality will enrich each common venture; and love which is God's empowering gift.

These three, but the greatest of these is the gift of love.

Discover your being, in love.

(Permission is given to reproduce, with source acknowledged.)
From Love's Letters: A Poetic Book of Confessions by George Gunn
(Library Lane Press / Copyright 2001)