stuff i think

More thoughts on the Song of Solomon....

"Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires..." Over and over in this song, we're admonished to strongly consider the act of opening the door of the heart...the implication being that it can be awakened to a false love and set up for disappointment.

One of my earliest memories is of standing in the kitchen of the farmhouse where I grew up...near the door was a panel of two switches. The right switch turned on the kitchen light, and the left turned on a light affixed to the top of a pole out in the yard. With no streetlamps for miles, we used this light when neighbors came and went after dark. I remember standing there flipping the light off and on in rapid succession, when my dad uttered one of those classic parentisms: "Quit that, son...it's only meant to do that so many times....". Of course, he was the one who thought about htis because if the bulb burned out, it was my dad who had to shimmy up the pole and replace it.

I look at people who open their hearts to others and things so easily, and in rapid succession. I read somewhere that letting a light bulb burn is not hard on it - it's the violent action in turning it off and on that causes it to burn out. I feel for people who have given their heart to a hundred pursuits and partners, only to have it switched off when the pursuit grew old or the partner grew unattractive. Do not arouse your heart without a certainty that your love will not be wasted - it's only meant to do that so many times. This isn't an admonition from God to not love, but to choose carefully the object of your deepest devotion.

Proverbs 4:24
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.