The Urge of Love

Posted on by mikepeercy

It’s strange how much people pay attention when you talk about sex, but how uninterested people are when we speak of love. I suppose it has something to do with the very sensory nature of sex and how we at the very least minimize the emotional connection involved.

But I wonder if this enormous preference for sex rather than love comes from an innate sense that love is a lot more work. It requires putting the needs of someone else ahead of our own, valuing another more than self. I suppose that is, in the arena of sexuality, the difference between engaging in sexual intercourse and, as the raggedly mis-used term goes, making love. One is focused upon self, the other upon the partner.

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Raised In Relationships

Posted on by mikepeercy

When our self-reliant cultural values carry over into our spiritual lives, it can make for some pretty crippling realities for the way we function in spiritual community.

The truth is that we need each other. A Real Life Faith is Raised In Relationships.

 

If you know Jesus, your faith needs people. It really is true. A faith that will endure the hardship and headache and heartache of life – a Real Life Faith – is Raised In Relationships.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Posted on by mikepeercy

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood.

I was driving through town with the windows down and the sun roof open and enjoying the cool air and thinking, “It’s a beautiful day…in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?”

And now it’s probably in your head too. It is, of course, the theme song from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” It’s kind of a catchy tune written by the beloved Mr. Rogers himself. But the reason it was so sticky in our minds, so memorable, was the way he sang it. It was his rich, personal sincerity and disarming kindness.

When he sang those words, “I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,” we believed it. He genuinely wanted us all to be his neighbors. And so, in some sense, we were until he moved from this world in 2003. I am confident he would wants us to join him there, but that’s another blog post entirely.

That song, though…”won’t you be, won’t you please, please won’t you be my neighbor?”

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