Some friends and I are currently discussing the Bob Goff book Love Does. The title – while appropriate for this book – has caused me to ask: Is love best described as an action? While love in action is powerful, I’m thinking that first and foremost: Love Is. Love Is…a state of being. It is a vulnerable state. It is a circumcised heart.
Reading in Jeremiah this week, I paused at a passage about uncircumcised hearts (Jer. 9:25,26) and found myself thinking about circumcision. I’m sure biblical scholars have written much about this, but the question nagged at my mind: Why did God require the Israelite men of the Old Testament to have a surgical procedure – on their male sex organ - likely the most sensitive, vulnerable and private part of a man’s body? And then: why does God talk to Jeremiah about uncircumcised hearts? He talks about a circumcision in body but not in spirit (heart).
A likely characteristic of a circumcised heart came to me today as I considered, once again, how the desire for romantic love can lead to heartache. It’s really, really tempting, especially after heartbreak, to want to protect one’s self from the possibility of future heartbreak. Yet therein is the conflict.
If one protects – closes or puts up a wall around one’s heart – the authentic kind of love one longs for cannot be attained. You have to be willing to be vulnerable…to let your heart go under the knife, so to speak, and have its covering removed. One must allow the authentic heart to be known. (Do you ensure appropriate boundaries and a healthy amount of self protection? Absolutely. But can you insist on a guarantee against having your heart broken again? You cannot.)
“Who does this kind of love?” I cry! Certainly most men I’ve encountered – while eager to date, perhaps – do not seem willing, and certainly not eager, for any such openness of heart. I imagine many married couples I know do not share this openness of heart.
Yet, I am becoming convinced that the truest definition of love is a state of being. Love Is, is the brand of love I want to offer – to a romantic relationship – and to this world. Love Is, is vulnerable. It feels. (But I’m so afraid of feeling, Lord…)
God has shown me that I can risk this. He’s got my back – incredibly and miraculously, if necessary. I am safe. I am free to love.
Love does, for sure, but primarily: Love Is.
