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 We are pleased to offer a new eight part series 'Learning to love' by Mike Mason. They are edited excerpts from his book 'Practicing the Presence of People (Waterbrook Press, 1999) Mike, a regular contributor to canadianchristianity.com, is perhaps most well known for his book 'The Mystery of Marriage.' that won the ECPA Gold Medallion award.
[other pieces by Mike Mason]
One night in 1997 I drove with my family to a dark rural spot to view Comet Hale-Bopp, the most impressive comet I've seen to date. As it happened, that same night there was a partial eclipse of the moon. So there we stood on a deserted road gazing up at the heavens in wonder. What a phenomenal display! Yet even so, with my little family huddled around me, I remember thinking that the real show was here on earth. We ourselves are the comets. We are the moon and the stars. We are the fireworks in a darkened universe.
To be in the presence of even the meanest, lowest, most repulsive specimen of humanity is still to be closer to God than when looking up into a starry sky or at a beautiful sunset. For we cannot really love a sunset; we can only love a person. God is love, and so we must come to Him through people. There is no separation between the spiritual and the social. The way we feel about other people is the way we feel about God, and the way we treat other people is the way we treat God. "Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers of mine," said Jesus, "you do for me" (Matthew 25:40).
Many of Jesus' parables illustrate this very point. In Luke 20, for example, a landowner goes away on a journey, leaving his vineyard in the care of tenants. Yet whenever the owner sends servants to collect his dues, those servants are beaten and killed. Finally the owner sends his son, and he too is killed. Clearly the tenants would do exactly the same to the owner himself if only they could get their hands on him.
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The servants in this parable are the prophets of God. But it is not only the prophets who are God's representatives on earth; it is also the poor, the sick, children, neighbors, our own families. Every person we meet is God's representative to us, looking to collect His dues. Are we paying up? Are we paying what Romans 13:8 calls "the continuing debt of love"? Or do we treat people with the civilized equivalent of killing and beating: ignoring or resenting them, sitting in silent judgment, rationalizing our lovelessness?
If I harbor bitterness, envy, or anger toward any human being, don't I have these same underlying feelings toward God? And not only toward God but toward all people, including myself. To be angry with one person is to be angry with the world. If I want an accurate answer to the question, "How am I doing spiritually?" I need only turn my thoughts to the one person in my life with whom I have the most trouble. This one person represents the place in my heart where peace with God is lacking.
There is nothing like a damaged relationship to confront us with our utter helplessness. This is what people are for----to show us our need for love. If only we could elevate love to its proper place in our lives----not in the abstract but in practice----then the grip of all our personal problems would loosen. Every problem has a damaged human relationship at its root. Sin might even be defined as our attempt to solve all our problems on our own, apart from relationship.
Now look at the person next to you and ask, "How much do I really want love?" No one can be close to God without also being close to people. A good friend of God will not be able to restrain his love for people. Do you love God? Look at the person beside you and you'll know.
April 18/2008
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