Happy Valentine's Day, everyone. In celebration of the holiday, I'd like to dust off and bring out the famous (or infamous) poem/reflection which is e-mailed around college Christian fellowships and youth groups. Yes, it's "
Soul Food", a.k.a. "
On His Plan For You", a.k.a. "
On His Plan For Your Mate" (titles apparently vary based on geographical location and denomination):
Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone
to have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively.
But God, to a Christian says, "No, not until you are satisfied, fulfilled and content with being loved by Me alone.
I love you my child.
And until you discover that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found, You will not be united with another until you are united with Me...
exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or longings.
I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow Me to give you the most thrilling plan existing... one you can't imagine.
I want you to have the best!
Please allow me to bring it to you.
You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep experiencing that satisfaction knowing that I Am.
Keep listening and learning the things I tell you.
You just wait, that's all.
Don't be anxious, don't worry.
Don't look around at the things other's have gotten or that I have given them.
Don't look at the things you think you want.
You just keep looking off and away up to Me, or you'll miss what I want to show you.
And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than any you would ever dream.
You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready (for I am working even at this very minute to have both of you ready at the same time), until you both are satisfied exclusively with Me and the life I prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the love that exemplifies your relationship with Me... and thus, the perfect love.
And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love.
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and the love that I offer you with Myself.
Know that I love you utterly. I am God Almighty. Believe it and be satisfied.
This e-mail is probably up there with "
Proctor & Gamble is run by Satan worshippers" as far as forwarded e-mails by Christians. I personally think it's just about as idiotic. Okay, I'm kidding - that's overly harsh. There are certainly some redeeming things about the core message of waiting patiently on the Lord, but here are a couple of issues I've had with this over the years:
- The poem somewhat implies that it's bad or automatically idolatrous to deeply love a human being. It's also portrays God as somewhat dismissive or unsympathetic to human loneliness.
- The poem seems to think that we'll get a mate upon being satisfied and completely content in God's love. That never "completely" happens this side of Glory. If this condition was truly the case, God would never give any of us spouses. It also reeks of "do this, and then I'll do this for you", which diminishes God's grace.
- Similar to above, being "satisfied exclusively with Me" seems a pre-requisite to bringing two people together. That's simply not true or again, nobody would be brought together.
To be fair, I used to think this was really clever and deep when I was younger, and it still might be edifying... if you're eighteen years old. I'll remind myself to send this to my kids twelve years from now.
As for Valentine's Day, I share similar sentiments with columnist Roland Martin around the stupidity of the holiday and the hope that people would choose not to get sucked into what is essentially a commercial racket. We should be encouraging each other to show love, appreciation and affection every day of the year, not just on a day which is strategically placed between other major shopping holidays. Don't be a mindless sheep pressured by the commercial syndicates and marketing brainwashers to buy mass-produced chocolates, week-old flowers and a card with a message whipped up by a starving poet living in his parents' basement. It's pathetic to see how desperate businesses are to try to exploit people's sense of inadequacy to buy unnecessary... ooh, the new Blackberry Curve 8900 is out!
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1 comment:
i dont think i like the poem ... i agree with everything you said, and in addition:
it encourages passiveness rather than being proactive. it defines living by God's will as sitting around and waiting for the neon sign to drop from the sky. in contrast to that, eph 5:15-17 says "15Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. " while God in his infinite grace sometimes responds to cowardly fleeces from us (judges 6), i believe God prefers us to "test and approve" his will (Romans 12:1-2) as he walks with us through life.
plus if youre a guy, you should be proactive. i think God designed men to initiate....and the poem doesnt seem to encourage that. and you should be taking advantage of your singleness.
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