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People can’t love well until they love God—
Escaping God, we cannot truly love—
Resulting in a world view that is flawed:
Pure, perfect love comes only from Above.
Love that never fails is rare! Not this stuff:
Egregious examples of selfishness.
X Commandments alone are not enough:
Infusions from God’s heart are what will bless
Those souls who need new, fresh love to pour out.
You see, weak love dissolves in weary hands.
Human love – so frail and flimsy!—runs out,
Exhausted all too soon by life’s demands.
Receiving love, we should give back, but flawed,
Embittered, can’t love without help from God.
by Gwennon
July 1, 2014
“I am the vine, ye are the branches . . . . without me, ye can do nothing.”
Jesus, as quoted in John 15:5
“He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love”
I John 4:8 KJV
“He who continues a lifestyle of not loving others
Is in the continual habit of not loving God, because God is love.”
– I John 4:8 — Gwennon’s paraphrase
I wrote this poem for a friend who is continually asking me why people she has helped don’t just help her back since they could easily do it. “They have all the resources to do it!” she asserts. But I counter that with this: “They can’t! They are simply not equipped to help you. Without God’s love in their hearts they have neither the equipment, nor the motivation to do anything for you. Because if people don’t love God, they can’t love others, either. At least, not well. And eventually, if they decide not to love God forever, they’ll lose even the ability to love others even a little bit, because God is love and is the only source of lasting love.” Of course, there have been many times in my life when I have been on the receiving end of this conversation and have to have the connection between loving God and loving people explained to me again. It’s a lesson that I have to relearn often. Sigh.
I want to thank my dear friend, Cheryl, for pointing out that I could use the “X” in line seven as a Roman numeral, instead of depending upon the much-presumed-upon “poetic license” we all fall into when the writing process becomes too hard and needs a little short-cut. Besides the words “X-ray” and “Xylophone”, I know of no other commonly-used English words that start with the letter “X”. And it was nice not to have to misspell a word in order to make the acrostic work here!
We will now pause for a moment to let everyone clap for Cheryl. Clap loud now, my friends!
Thank you, Cheryl!
Hugs,
Gwennon