When the stars align in just the right way my wife and I seem to have the same taste in things...apparently I have a proclivity towards the odd, the unusual, the uncool, unfashionable, the ridiculous...I digress. My wife has a respectable balance in her music preferences while I typically am all or nothing in a particular genre. However, the stars are synced, and we are currently both enjoying the new 10 years album, Feeding the Wolves, and in particular the song, Don't Fight it. Listen and enjoy:
I don't share this hoping that you become a fan of 10 Years but rather because a scripture is always playing over and over in my head: For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. 1 Cor 3:21-23 What this means is where ever, whenever, however, and whatever you notice is true *as lovers of Jesus* because we belong to Him, it belongs to us. Understanding this puts a lens of Redemption on our eyes...a filter of Redemption on our ears...an interpretation of Redemption on our hearts...
In our culture, the word "love" has so many miles put on it that it carries little if any weight...yet the concept in the ancient Hebrew culture was more than mere hormonal firings and flippant lingo, but a spiritual, emotional, and physical actuality with layered meaning between two real, raw people. Three Hebrew words designated to describe the scope of love: Ra'ah (pronounced "Ra-yah"), Ahavah (pronounced "Ah-ha-vah"), and Dod (pronounced "Dode").
Ra'ah means "companion", but not like "buds". It's more like knowing someone's polished side and their raunchy junk too...so the very nature of it means there has to be time and struggle. Ahavah cannot transpire until Ra'ah is present. Ahavah means "the love of the will" interpreted as
"I. am. not. going. anywhere."
Picture a person trapped in a fiery house with no hope of escape and her lover coming to her and refusing to leave...fading together. Picture again a dude hiding behind a piece of furniture while his wife is throwing knives at him in attempts to kill him and him yelling to her, "I'm STILL not leaving!" Crazy? Love. Ahavah. It's the safety net of a relationship. Again, time and struggle.
When these two aspects of love are actual, Dod occurs. Dod means "to carouse, rock, fondle, or mingle." People often think Dod is the Hebrew word for sex (come on, what else do you use the word fondle for?) Yet, Dod is more than the exchanging of fluids, though Dod is indeed present during sex (crass, yes, but it's what our culture has reduced it to). Dod is the mingling...of souls. Two becoming one.
Ra'ah, Ahavah, and Dod are a pulsating rhythm that seems like a mythical apparition in our culture, but in reality is ever present, emanating from Jesus. He is love; He knows our strengths and weakness because He knit us; He isn't going anywhere, proved by the Cross; and He then progressively sanctifies us because His Spirit lives in and through us. Now remember the Hebrew mind thinks with word pictures layered in meaning. So...
With Don't Fight It on repeat on my iPod, I can't help but hear Ahavah...(maybe I read into my music too much, but I prefer that all truth is mine.) I beg Jesus for this with my wife, that though she generally dislikes my taste in things; though I splash water all over the bathroom like a bird bath; though I sleep walk to the extreme; though my iniquities have led her to throw objects at my head; when we fall into each other, we won't fight it. And the pulsating rhythm continues...I know ra'ah, ahavah, and dod are a reality in part with my bride because we receive them in whole from my Father.
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