a furious Love...

Usually, I think of 'fury' as an angry word. I associate it with rage, or extreme anger. But, like many words in the English Language, I believe 'fury' or 'furious' can mean something more than just extreme anger. The Compact Oxford Dictionary describes fury as "with great energy or effort" and furious as "full of energy or intensity". In Tremendous Trifles, GK Chesterton wrote of "the furious love of God", and I'm pretty sure he meant "intense energy" rather than rage.

I have experienced God's furious Love. For me, it's the baffling, unexplainable, unexplainable, unfathomable feeling I get at unexpected, yet purposeful times. And, sometimes, I show a furious love for God, especially when the Love that I know and have experienced is questioned. What makes me even more furious (in either sense of the word...?) is when I hear someone teach a skewed view of His Love. This happened at my school recently, where a teacher of a friend suggested a judgemental and manipulative image of the God I love. Perhaps I'll share THAT story another time. Anyway, judgemental or manipulative are not words I'd use to describe Him...

Jesus said "Live in me. Make your home in me as I do in you" (John 15:4, MSG)

Home is usually a word associated with an environment of welcoming love and acceptance, accompanied by signs of affection. His invitation to love is startling, and extremely different to the idea God's Love that I often see taught, and often hear from my non-Christian friends. So frequently I hear people speak of God's love in terms of rules, and their interpretation of Christianity as a formula. So often I have even tried to categorize His Love, make it as tangible as possible, but in the way I have attempted to do that, it limits His compassion, limits who He is to me...

The awesome Love of God has become tangible. It has even become audible. His Love for us is Jesus, who is filled with enduring Love. In Ephesians 3:17-19, Paul prays...

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

It took me a few reads, but suddenly, I realized what Paul was saying. The Love of Christ is beyond knowledge. God's Love cannot be understood. I have to let go of all my ideas of God, and be open to the real God. I think THAT is when we will be filled up with the fullness of God.

So many of my previous ideas of God I now realize were so wrong. The wrathful god of alternating moods, the irritated god disgusted with believers, the prejudiced god partial to my church, the warrior god of a 'just' war, the inconsistent god of questionable morality... There are so many ideas of 'god' that I've had over the years, I could go on for ages.

But, for now, I think I've changed my outlook. For today, Von Balthasar's credo rings true to me:
"Love alone is credible"

For today, I believe that the best definition of God is Love. Which leads me to the next questions... What is Love?

Simply put, Love is God, and vice versa. You just can't separate the two.

God is love. 1 John 4:10