[Through a meetinghouse window, May, 2017]
Having spent the day before with a dear and loving friend, settling into meeting for worship on Sunday I found myself reviewing the kinds of love as if Philia or Storge were ice cream flavors: yum!
My personal New York Super Fudge Chunk? Agape. So, as I reviewed, true to (her intense and transcendent and grace-lit) style, Universal/Unconditional Love declared herself In The House so powerfully I was almost brought to my feet to shout Hallelujah!
But didn’t for the same reason I hesitate to write about this, today. For what came to me was a Bible passage getting a lot of play lately. Some might say THE Bible passage; John 3:18: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . . ”
As a pre-Easter Christian and a woman of faith who experiences God as a verb and not a male pronoun, I’ve carelessly (and callously?) dismissed this sentence. Until Sunday. When it hit me that I’ve carelessly skipped over that . . . so loved the world that. . . bit, too.
But that’s the thing about Agape. It won’t be ignored. She won’t be ignored. Her powerful Love, a warm blanket to keep you warm or to beat out fires* will not be denied. So she’s asking me to find Love in the second-half of John 3:18. She’s asking me to explore if there’s Something in the post-Easter Jesus I need to experience. She’s grateful I didn’t get to my feet on Sunday; she wants me to try to write this, today, as carefully and tenderly as I can. Because we both know how much John 3:18 means to others. (Philia is also In The House.)
So I’m listening. Tasting. Testing.
*as a speaker noted on Sunday
John 3:16, not 3:18. It’s printed on the bottom of In-N-Out cups.
Dear Patricia,
Well, hi, there, Patricia, my so, so very For Always awesomely precious and dearly special soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker woman who you’re For Always so, so very much! Wow, what a deeply spiritual, profoundly in-depth, very engaging and introspective blog post article here by absolutely awesome YOU, Patricia! I so, so very much love, like, enjoy, and appreciate bearing witness to your very dearest and brilliant thinking as you process your illuminating thoughts here, sisterfriend! Sister, the title of this very fine and excellent blog post article here is perfect, and absolutely perfect with this very full of such spirit and Spirit picture accompanying your great title and article here through your Meeting’s window, my so, so very dearest and darling friend. I thank-YOU so, so much as usual as always because of how you have very graciously and generously featured and included the marvelous links with your very stupendous article here even revisiting the pre-Easter and post-Easter Christian article being such a great joy and blessing to read at and check out again very joyfully reviewing this blessed information again, my friend! Sister, I so, so very much love how you have very graciously and generously revisited here again the very interesting and fascinating article with its very empowering info on the ancient Greeks’ ideas and definitions of the six kinds of love. Wow, sister, I love this spectacular article as well and what a blessed joy and immense blessing to read and check out this very fine and excellent article again revisiting and reviewing this wonderful and spirit-enhancing information again with such joy reading this once more, sister and friend of mine, Patricia. Wow!!!!! Yay!!!!!
Wow, I am just so, so very thrilled, overjoyed, and happy that you were able to spend the day with one of your dear and loving friends, sister! I love so how you felt filled with the Spirit overflowing in your very heart and spirit with such praises for Spirit that you almost were brought to your feet to shout Hallelujah, Patricia! Praise be, sister! Praise be and Praise Spirit, sister and friend of mine, Patricia!!!!! I so, so very much love, enjoy, and appreciate how you reviewed in your worship during Meeting the kinds of love as if they were ice cream flavors, sister! Your personal favorite, New York Super Fudge Chunk sounds very yummy, delicious, and delectable, sister!!!!! My Ben & Jerry’s favorite which I haven’t had in a long time since I can’t afford it is the Cookie Dough ice cream, sister! I will try to fit that into my budget as much as I can. Sisterfriend, I’ve even been so naughty and eaten raw cookie dough straight out of the packaged wrap!!!!! :)!!!!! Sister, I am resisting doing so even more because I have heard that it isn’t always safe to eat cookie dough raw but, WOW, Patricia, what a great temptation it is to do so, Patricia!!!!!! :)!!!!!! Sister, I know what you mean as to how as you reviewed and as I am discerning in my review how as you very wisely share and declare here Spirit’s intense and transcendent and grace-lit style of radiating Her Universal/Unconditional Love just fills us up with such bursting and delightful indwelling praises for Spirit that we are urged to shout out for joy to Her as our So, So Very Dearest and Darling Mother Spirit, sisterfriend!!!!! Sister, I can relate to your uneasy relationship and connection to this verse from Scripture with John 3:16. This verse brings to my mind and memory how when especially when I was a lot younger that I along with other people would be bombarded by some fundamentalist so-called Christians who would force themselves and this verse upon us in an either/or accept Jesus as Saviour or go to hell(I don’t believe in hell literally and I think that Spirit is just too, too merciful to have Her Creations suffering in permanent torment and torture. I do believe in our Heaven). I can just cringe inside as I remember how pushy these fundamentalists were with their accept Jesus or be damned kind of erroneous and faulty message back then, and what scary images they brought forth with their very heinous and dire images and conceptions of a literal hell of fire and brimstone. Wow, sister, I think that Spirit is just so, so very merciful, and that if people aren’t going to our Heaven that Spirit confronts them once they have died and then after seeing a Vision of Heaven and in knowing that they aren’t going there that God in Her Mercy ends their very existence and they going into permanent sleep where they no longer have any awareness not existing anymore, sisterfriend. My friend, I so enjoyed reading about your very thinking and processing on all of the six forms of love, Patricia! I can very much relate to how you don’t only see God as a male pronoun. I truly appreciate and love bearing witness to your very process in all of this, Patricia! Friend and sister of mine, Patricia, I so, so very much want for yearning so much for and longing for each of the six kinds of love! Patricia, I’m with you here as I am, too, a person who so cherishes and longs for Agape love! Philia or friendship love is also so, so very dear to my very, very heart, and my very, very heart and spirit as well, Patricia. Sister, you are such a woman of faith and a woman of God, a woman of Spirit. I, too, value and cherish Agape love as such a precious gift and blessing. I just with all that I have with all of my very being love, cherish, and value Agape love just as I so, so very much love, cherish, and value YOU, Patricia, and each and every one of you as Spirit’s children and my sisters and brothers!!!!! Sister, I’m both a pre-Easter Christian and also a post-Easter Christian, Patricia. Wow, do I just love your great sharing here as usual as always, sister!!!!!! Sisterfriend, you are so right on about that’s the thing about Agape. She won’t be ignored or resisted as you very sagaciously say here. You are so right, sister. The speaker at Meeting on Sunday is also so, so very right on in saying that Spirit in Her Powerful Love is likened to a warm blanket to keep you warm or to beat out fires and being utterly undeniable. Sisterfriend, I so, so very much love, enjoy, and appreciate how you’re listening. Testing. Tasting. Wow, I so enjoy learning about your great thoughts and processing on how you are a pre-Easter Christian. This makes so much sense, sisterfriend, and I so love learning about your very point of view here, Patricia. Sister, blessings on your very journey and process as you explore the post-Easter Jesus. Wow, this is very wonderful exploring and learning more and more with our very insightful discoveries which never ever come to an end, sister!!! Wow, and what fun it is to seek out more learning and information, sister!!!! Wow!!!!! Yay!!!!!
Sister, I feel even better and brighter after very joyfully reading this very outstanding and engaging blog post article by absolutely amazing YOU, Patricia, and very joyfully responding with my very heartfelt, detailed, and through thoughts, ideas, and comments here, sisterfriend of mine!!!!! I’m even more renewed, rejuvenated, reinvigorated, and re-energized after the very sheer delight and blessing of reading this very inspirational and enlightening blog post article even more encouraged, inspired, and emboldened to go forth and about my very day and life!!!!! Sister, you are so, so very good for me anyway, and you help me a whole bunch with my very walk with Jesus, Patrica!!!!! I thank Spirit continually for YOU, Patricia, and for your very presence in my life!!!!! Patricia, please have such a fun-filled and very fantastic Friday, a wondrously wonderful weekend ahead, and may all of your very days be so, so very especially blessed!!!!! Spirit so, so very much loves and cherishes YOU, Patricia, and so do I!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!
Very Warmly and Sincerely For Always, my so, so very For Always awesomely special and dearly precious soul sisterfriend Christian Quaker white woman who you’re For Always so, so very much, Patricia, with My and Jesus’ Peace and Love For You For Always, friend of mine and with Such Blessings and Such Very Even More Blessings For You For Always, sister of mine,
Yours For Always soul sisterfriend Christian black woman and For Always in the very great spirit and solidarity, Sherry Gordon in Iowa City, Iowa
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