times a wastin'

I awoke this morning to find a "page suggestion" on facebook. Turns out it's from an acquaintance of mine who is now CFO of a non-profit that raises money and awareness to fight world hunger. Pretty cool. I use the term acquaintance even though I've never spoken to this person. I tend to know of people more often than I actually know them. It makes me think of the people who are in my life, the ones who I think about, pray for, and mean to call. Life slips by, one day at a time. Suddenly it's been a week, then a month, and I'm still wondering how so and so is doing. Over the last few years, I've noticed that life is like a virus, better when shared. Ok, bad analogy. Life is like a bench, usually made to be shared? Um, life's like a two seat bicycle... Let's stop there. My point is: life is meant to be shared with others. We are more effective and happier when we surround ourselves with people. Love is a gun, why waste it on yourself? Wow, I probably shouldn't blog in the morning, lol.

Hmm, on the subject of death, I have attitudes and behaviors that need to be encouraged, and others that need to be killed. Thankfully, Christian Kool-aid is figurative. I know that people get discouraged to the point of wishing their lives on earth would end. Those are times of intense loneliness. I also know people who faced death with the love and support of their family and friends. Some people flirt with death, others say hello as to an acquaintance that is known of, but not yet befriended. I combine the ideas of "friendship" and "death" only to point out that times a wastin' for most of us. Why wait to get to know people? Fear of being known? From recent personal interactions, I'm finding out that being known is not so bad ;) In fact, being known, and accepted, is the most life-changing experience any of us can understand. Some of you smarty-pants may argue that death is the most life-changing experience you can understand. Good point. What could change life more than ending it? Well, how about a figurative death where your shame and biggest fears are ended? Some say: Omnia vincit amor or love conquers all. If that is the case, love conquers our fear and shame. Others say: if love is surrender, whose war is it anyway? Technically, we need to surrender our fear and shame, so are we the conquerors or the ones being conquered? Whose love do we surrender to? Who is fighting for us? If every heart is a battlefield, who are you fighting for? I used to fight to stay hidden. Now I fight to be known. I used to run; now I see the beauty past surrenders painful death. I see it every day. My love is vanity, a vapor that does no one good. If that is the kind of love we humans possess, then how is it that we experience actual life changing love? We simply must be in possession of love that extends beyond our capacity to manufacture, which means we must have discovered, or been given that love. If every heart is a battlefield, who fights for you? Do you know this person, or know of this person? Are you afraid that if they know you, they will withhold love from you? Just one more question: if someone loves you, how could they not love you? There is no fear in love.