Finding The Secret

More Than Conquerors
March 2003

Love

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

–1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV)

When people today speak of love, they usually mean an emotional bond of some type. Either they mean the bond between a man and a woman, or the bond between friends, or some other bond of emotions. But the love that Paul writes about in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, the love that Jesus spoke of, is so much more than just an emotional bond. The love that Paul spoke of is a choice—a choice to give up your “self”, whether it be your own interests, your desires, your time, or even your emotions, for the good of someone else.

The love that is portrayed in 1 Corinthians 13 is selfless. It looks not for its own interests, is not proud, but is kind and patient. This is true love! It is so much more than just an emotional bond between two people. Emotions can change in days, but the choice to give of your self for the good of another human soul lasts forever.

When Jesus told us what the greatest commandment is, He said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 [NIV]) This love is more than just a little piece of life that adds pleasure to our lives. This sacrificial dying to your self, that Jesus taught, and demonstrated by dying on the cross, is LIFE!

Take a moment to imagine what life would be like if everyone loved each other. Instead of having divisions when people disagree with each other, people would seek to understand each other and not put their views upon someone else. They would encourage others with what they have learned, but they would let each person have the freedom to follow where God is leading them, without pouring condemnation upon them. In essence, what we would have is community—people living together in love and peace under the leadership of Christ himself (who else could teach us how to love each other? He is the example, and the source, of love). This is what God meant in the Garden of Eden when He created Adam and Eve, and this is what He has sought for throughout all of history. He wants people who are willing to lay aside their own interests, desires, emotions, and their lives, for someone else. Learning to love first God, and then each other is what I believe life is really all about.

Help The World Turn Round

I have found that love really does
Keep the world turning ’round
Because there is simply nothing
When love cannot be found

Love is more than an emotion
But is a decision
To give up yourself for others
With a higher vision

In battles between love and hate
Love will always prevail
Because hate fades through the years
But love will never fail

So give for a higher cause
And help the world turn ’round
And you will see that on this path
The way to God is found

—Benjamin Graber

Who has not found the heaven below
Will fail of it above.
God’s residence is next to mine,
His furniture is love.

—Emily Dickinson

Where?

Where’s the passion?
Where’s the depth?
Is there any sincerity left?
Are we sure of
What we want?
Do we say “I will,” but shan’t?

Search yourself.
Do you see
What you really want to be?
Is this all?
Are you done?
Will you always live for fun?

Why do morals
Of today
Hit you “on the spot” this way?
Is your music
All you need?
Is it truly a fruitful seed?

Can you sit down
For any length,
And study truth to give you strength?
Are you content
To be with friends?
Is this where satisfaction ends?

Will you spend
No time at all
Trying to find God’s willful call?

Where’s compassion?
Where’s the love
Are you all that you think of?
Why do we
Fear to be bold?
Instead we Christians look so cold

Unfeeling, unloving
No influence
On a world that needs God’s washing sent

We watch their films
We sing their songs.
We feel their words are very strong.

We seek for truth
In worldly thought
Instead of truth Christ for us bought
We know everything,
Yet nothing at all.
Our pride will laughingly see us fall.

O Lord, please bless
These thoughts of mine
Help me to seek your love divine.

—Samuel Popiel

Love Is Strong As Death

“I have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee,
I have not thirsted for Thee:
And now cold billows of death surround me,
Buffeting billows of death astound me,—
Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see
Thy perishing me?”

“Yea, I have sought thee, yea, I have found thee,
Yea, I have thirsted for thee,
Yea, long ago with love’s bands I bound thee:
Now the Everlasting Arms surround thee,—
Thro’ death’s darkness I look and see
And clasp thee to Me.”

—Christina Rossetti

Love Is Strength

Love alone is great in might,
Makes the heavy burden light,
Smoothes rough ways to weary feet,
Makes the bitter morsel sweet:
Love alone is strength!

Might that is not born of love
Is not might born from above,
Has its birthplace down below
Where they neither reap nor sow:
Love alone is strength!

Love is stronger than all force,
Is its own eternal source;
Might is always in decay,
Love grows fresher every day:
Love alone is strength!

Little ones, no ill can chance;
Fear ye not, but sing and dance;
Though the high-heaved heaven should fall
God is plenty for us all:
God is Love and Strength!

—George MacDonald

Sharing

Share your seed and watch it grow—
Then you'll know the joy of giving.
Share yourself and your whole life,
Then you'll know the joy of living!

Written Breath

I am weary, my heart breaks
My soul a graveyard, each bone aches
I find no comfort for my pain
This grim despair shall be my bane

Save me! I cry ‘til tears are spent.
My shoulders heave; my back is bent
O how I long to be relieved
Of this conscience my soul has grieved

I hope, and yet I cannot hide
This sullen face I wear inside
A Breath of Life I need to feel
And from this breath to me reveal
The cure that holds true hope that’s real
And causes this proud heart to kneel.

A Living Breath! Breathed for my sake
It speaks of love, and hatred breaks,
Where bitterness falls, forgiveness reigns.
And scarlet washing takes our stains.

For it’s a Breath enveloping me.
It whispers grace that set me free!
So from this Breath my strength renews,
This Written Breath that brings good news.

—Samuel Popiel

Bridge Between Two Hearts

Sometimes it is so hard for us
To express what is inside us
Though we need each other so much
A crevasse seems to divide us

The breach stretches a million miles
But somehow there must be a way
To reach across and touch a heart
And to stop the canyon’s decay

A million miles—so very far
But there’s a way to make it through
The touch of friendship makes a bridge
To provide a path for you

—Benjamin Graber

Life And Love

Fast this Life of mine was dying,
Blind already and calm as death,
Snowflakes on her bosom lying
Scarcely heaving with her breath.

Love came by, and having known her
In a dream of fabled lands,
Gently stooped, and laid upon her
Mystic chrism of holy hands;

Drew his smile across her folded
Eyelids, as the swallow dips;
Breathed as finely as the cold did
Through the locking of her lips.

So, when life looked upward, being
Warmed and breathed on from above,
What sight could she have for seeing,
Evermore… but only LOVE?

—Elizabeth Browning

Soothing Of A Storm

When I am most unsure
Of what to think at all
The rain comes falling pure
And steadily it falls

A soothing, soaking storm
That lifts my spirits high
Plummeting without form
Nourishing a spirit, dry.

Thunder is my close friend
At times a whisper soft
At other times a din
Of noise crashing aloft

A lighting of the sky
Enlightens body, soul
With rich and pure white light
All fears now to condole

O, glorious drenching clouds!
Honey couldn’t drop sweeter
From your close gray shrouds
That send this soft earth-patter,

My ears are singing glad
For joy that rain sends, hearing,
A happiness hard to grab at
Or describe this sound endearing.

—Samuel Popiel

All Is Well

A long day of work is over
And now it is time for rest
In the haven in which we dwell;
Now has come time for us to smile
And see that we are truly blessed,
And then to whisper, “All is well.”

The owls hoot while squirrels sleep
And the stars shine bright in the night
Listen—stories of hope they tell!
The little children sleep in peace
Knowing everything’s all right.
And we realize all is well

Peace reigns through the midnight sky,
And as I looked upon the stars
At last I truly understood
That we can sleep, you and I,
And in our dreams we’ll travel far,
For all is well, and God is good

—Benjamin Graber

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword?… No, in all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
—Romans 8:35, 37

If you have any comments or questions, or if you have a poem to share that you would like included in the next issue, please send an e-mail to bgraber@neo.rr.com

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