Rescue me
This great R&B song, released in 1965 and originally performed by Fontella Bass, is as infectious today as it was when it first hit the charts. I don't think it is simply the beat, or the fabulous vocal, that reaches people (although they certainly do). I think it touches us because it speaks to a fundamental need: "can't you see that I'm lonely?".
We need to be loved, but more importantly we need to know that we are loved. In our fragility, our weakness, we often do not feel assured we are loved by the people in our lives. As circumstances change, so we think love goes: she's disappointed, he's angry, he's hurt, they're unhappy...and therefore she, he or they don't really love me. But love trancends these things. Love is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, said Paul to the Corinthians (his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1-13).
"Hang on," you say. "That's not how I have experienced love. The person closest to me has been impatient and unkind, has been quick to anger, and definitely keeps track of my wrongs, which they throw up in my face all the time!"
There is a much longer discussion needed of the full context of this passage, of what Paul is really saying to us here, and of this "most excellent way", as he calls it, but that must be for another time. For now, let's limit ourselves to the impact these experiences of love have on us.
When we see love lived out in ways opposite to what Paul describes, by those who claim to love us, we can come to believe we are not truly loved. It isn't that we completely dismiss the love they have for us, it is that we understand that love to be conditional. And the problem with this notion is that it means that being loved depends on me meeting some standard: "He will love me if I am (fill in the blank)."
Our loneliness is deeply internal, in that private self who does not want to show a mask to the outside world, who gets tired of always having to work at being someone else in public, someone who can be loved. We just want to be accepted as we are, flaws and warts and problems and insecurities and everything else. And so we go looking for that unconditional love.
Sadly, many people believe that unconditional love cannot be found in the Christian church. That is partly because we in the church do not love as Paul outlines, but it is also because we have not clearly proclaimed the truth that God's love for each of us is and always has been unconditional.
The truth is that God loves you, just as you are. Ask him. Directly. Even if you aren't sure he exists, take the chance that he does and seek him out. In many places in the Bible, God tells us that if we honestly look for him we will find him. So if you are looking for love, for confirmation that you are loved, turn to God and ask him to reveal his love to you. He will rescue you, just as he rescued me.
We need to be loved, but more importantly we need to know that we are loved. In our fragility, our weakness, we often do not feel assured we are loved by the people in our lives. As circumstances change, so we think love goes: she's disappointed, he's angry, he's hurt, they're unhappy...and therefore she, he or they don't really love me. But love trancends these things. Love is patient, is kind, does not envy, does not boast, said Paul to the Corinthians (his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1-13).
"Hang on," you say. "That's not how I have experienced love. The person closest to me has been impatient and unkind, has been quick to anger, and definitely keeps track of my wrongs, which they throw up in my face all the time!"
There is a much longer discussion needed of the full context of this passage, of what Paul is really saying to us here, and of this "most excellent way", as he calls it, but that must be for another time. For now, let's limit ourselves to the impact these experiences of love have on us.
When we see love lived out in ways opposite to what Paul describes, by those who claim to love us, we can come to believe we are not truly loved. It isn't that we completely dismiss the love they have for us, it is that we understand that love to be conditional. And the problem with this notion is that it means that being loved depends on me meeting some standard: "He will love me if I am (fill in the blank)."
Our loneliness is deeply internal, in that private self who does not want to show a mask to the outside world, who gets tired of always having to work at being someone else in public, someone who can be loved. We just want to be accepted as we are, flaws and warts and problems and insecurities and everything else. And so we go looking for that unconditional love.
Sadly, many people believe that unconditional love cannot be found in the Christian church. That is partly because we in the church do not love as Paul outlines, but it is also because we have not clearly proclaimed the truth that God's love for each of us is and always has been unconditional.
The truth is that God loves you, just as you are. Ask him. Directly. Even if you aren't sure he exists, take the chance that he does and seek him out. In many places in the Bible, God tells us that if we honestly look for him we will find him. So if you are looking for love, for confirmation that you are loved, turn to God and ask him to reveal his love to you. He will rescue you, just as he rescued me.
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