love is...bind?

confession...song lyrics are not my strong suit...especially making them out in a song...one of my favourite miss-hearings has to be that of the dido song titled "white flag." i always thought she was saying "i will go down with this ship, and i will poke my eyes out and surrender. there will be no white flag above my door. i'm in love and always will be." well, she's actually saying "and i won't put my hands up and surrender." and for the record, just now as i was googling the lyrics, i see that i'm not the only one who has made this mistake. apparently i don't have to feel as dumb about this one, after seeing similar admissions from other people.


well, i did it again...maybe i should say, "oops, i did it again" :-) this time with a jesus culture song called "let it rain." this one's actually gonna be more embarrassing to admit because it will reveal how stunned i really can be, especially when i knew the title and that the song is about rain. the song starts, "let it rain, let it rain. open the floodgates of heaven. let it rain. i feel the rains of Your love. i feel the winds of Your spirit..." without delaying my embarrassment any longer, when i first heard the words i actually heard and pictured "i feel the reins of Your love."


as you recover from your laughter, let me go on to say that i eventually realized on my own what the right words are. however, every time i hear the song and it comes to that line i still hear and envision reins.


while i'm wrong as far as the song is concerned, i'm actually right where the love of God is concerned. 2 corinthians 5:14 says this: "the love of Christ constrains us." i love that verse. the word constrain, according to the oxford english dictionary, means to compel someone to follow a particular course of action--kind of like the reins i keep seeing and hearing in "let it rain." this isn't the kind of love that overlooks or ignores failures in a 'love is blind' kind of way. rather, it's the kind of love that keeps me from always failing. this kind of love is a keeping, compelling, guiding kind of love. it makes sense then to consider the word origin for constrain...middle english from old frenchconstraindre and from latinconstringere, meaning to 'bind tightly together.' yeah, the love of Christ binds...and that ain't bad :-) love is blind? blinding love? uh uh. i'm talking binding love :-p


no matter which way you look at it, there's a controlling feature about this kind of love...controlling in a good way. whether you're talking about your love for God--ie, your "love of Christ"--or God's love for you--ie, the "love of Christ" for you--there's a controlling, keeping, compelling, guiding force at work. your unadulterated love for God will stop you from doing things that would otherwise disappoint Him...like being unfaithful, for example. and God's matchless, unparalleled, always pursuing love won't relent until you know how serious He is in His love for you...like being faithful even when it's not yet reciprocated. let me just add that control is good...think workplace health and safety controls...think traffic controls...don't get all bent out of shape thinking your independence and identity will be lost...in fact, your independence and identity will be best realized through constraint. rooted and grounded in love (ephesians 3:17), you'll never be more free.


the way i see it, lately and daily i have felt the reins of His love, tugging on my affections and my desires and my passions and my focus to keep me in line...to keep me on course...to remind me "how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is" (ephesians 3:18) for me. with that kind of love i can agree with the last part of dido's chorus, "i'm in love and always will be." however, as for the rest, i'm totally waving the white flag of surrender as i surrender to God's binding, matchless, unparalleled, always pursuing love.