Do we recognize how much we need God’s love in our life, or put a different way, how much do we desire that love that only God can fulfill? Our lives are so busy, we tend to just push away this desire or we may not even think about it at all. But even when we do contemplate God’s love, we can only express it in terms that a limited human mind can do (like below), in terms of things that are familiar, but it’s so much more than that.
I came across a familiar poem today that expressed, in worldly terms, how much one can desire the love of another, and it reminded me more of whether we desire God at least like this, or is it only this powerfully expressed for the things of this world? If we can express worldly love “like the hot needs the sun, like honey on her tongue, like oxygen, I need your love”, how much greater is the love God has for us? Without the desire for God’s love, and for His Glory, we are just about in the same shape as my widow pictured above, broken.
I have gone over the words below about twenty times now, it’s pretty powerful (even more when put to music), but how much more should we desire God’s love… probably more than we need to take our next breath.
I Need Your Love
Like a desert needs rain Like a town needs a name I need your love Like a drifter needs a room Hawkmoon I need your love Like a rhythm unbroken Like drums in the night Like sweet soul music Like sunlight I need your love Like coming home And you don't know where you've been Like black coffee Like nicotine I need your love (I need your love) When the night has no end And the day yet to begin As the room spins around I need your love Like a Phoenix rising needs a holy tree Like the sweet revenge of a bitter enemy I need your love Like the hot needs the sun Like honey on her tongue Like the muzzle of a gun Like oxygen I need your love (I need your love) When the night has no end And the day yet to begin As the room spins around I need your love Like thunder needs rain Like a preacher needs pain Like tongues of flame Like a sheet stained I need your love Like a needle needs a vein Like someone to blame Like a thought unchained Like a runaway train I need your love Like faith needs a doubt Like a freeway out I need your love Like powder needs a spark Like lies need the dark I need your love I need all the love in your heart... and I need all the love in your heart...
47 responses to “Jesus, I need Your Love, Hawkmoon”
An interesting topic and discussion, thanks.
People in general recognize the need for love, yet the notion that we need love from a specific source (real or imagined) seems questionable to me.
Since the topic was raised of how religion affects the way people deal with gays, this reminds me of a really terrible real-life current event. It’s easy for people to read things like this news story and see it as the result of faith in the Bible (or other religious texts) leading to vicious hatred and the implied approval of bullying against people who, like all of us, need love and acceptance:
http://www.parentdish.com/2010/10/27/arkansas-school-board-member-will-wear-purple-if-gay-people-comm/
Please understand. I’m not in the business of telling people whether or not they qualify as a “true follower of Christ.” There are so many contradictory opinions on this and other religious beliefs, and I see little value arguing over such abstractions. The reality, sometimes harsh, is that we live in a world where many–not all, but a great many–sincere Christians read their Bibles as a source of morality only to come out of it far less moral than when they started, like this man who made such cruel, mean-spirited remarks aimed at children because he believes that a difference in sexual orientation is a “sin.”
It may be comforting to think of a book like the Koran or the Bible as a “specific moral standard,” but I see this as terribly limiting. After all, how can you judge whether such books are a good moral standard?
It seems to me that people who are responsible enough to reason about the consequences of their actions, and who have the empathy to care how these possible outcomes may affect others–they are the ones exercising a profound sense of morality or ethics. Whether or not they value a holy book appears to matter less than whether or not they exhibit this combination of careful reasoning from our shared human experience and the applied capacity for compassion. People have used the Bible, for example, as a standard for “morally” killing women accused of witchcraft, for “morally” discriminating against a small percentage of our population over their minority sexual orientation, and for “morally” doing all sorts of nasty things, like condoning human slavery.
If there were a god, then maybe what we would really need from it is something a little less prone to react with a holier-than-thou attitude because of this unjustified belief in having a special insight into what is supposed to be divinely ordained.
And Mr. Taylor, my name is not Ellen. I am not your friend. You may address me as Ms. Wachs. Please re-read my posts.
Why don’t you point out to me just where it is exactly your proposition for your attack that I stated “my belief that there is no god?”
The only thing that comes even remotely close is the statement “if there were a god that allowed the suffering of little children…” But that is certainly not a positive assertion of any outright belief or statement that there is no god.
You come in here and call my position philosophically absurd when you are the one that makes a positive allegation but provides no evidence? In a court of law this is thrown out before it gets to trial on a motion for summary judgment as you simply have NO evidence to present to support the claim.
You have also reaffirmed and cemented the reason atheists have a problem with believers. Congratulations.
@Jamie thanks for pointing that out, yes, there is only one way, and my use of “true Christian”, in context, was just to make a point. A “true Christian” of course is simply one that Believes in Christ as you explained, there are others however who claim to be Christians when they do not hold to this belief, those are who I would be referring to, but perhaps should have worded it differently.
@Ellen Christians are “a group of highly rigid, manipulated dogmatic mean-spirited, arrogant self-righteous judgers unable to grant even the most basic civil rights” may be how you see Christians but that is far from the truth, whether you see it that way or not.
For you to classify an enormous group of people in that one way is simplistic, ignorant, and against what you state you believe yourself. You think all people are “good” EXCEPT Christians. That may feed your ego well but it still doesn’t make it true. There are many Christians who are the complete opposite, it’s too bad you have such a narrow view of people that you can’t see that.
Either way, at this point, I am not sure what your point is. You don’t want a logical conversation you only want to call names like you are on a playground.
@Joel LOL, heaven forbid you address someone as you would deal with someone standing in front of you, on a nice, personal level
@Ellen thank you for once again proving that you are not interested in any logical and intelligent conversation here, Joel brings up good points but then I wouldn’t expect you to think so… by definition an atheist does not believe in God so I don’t think that was any leap of faith on his part to think you, calling yourself an atheist, doesn’t believe in God?