Love Is a Good Thing

Our family's challenging season of life continues to steamroll over us as we witness the deterioration of Sabrina's mom's health due to the ravages of oral cancer. She is now in hospice care at home and we really don't expect her life to be extended all that much longer. We are encouraged that she will soon be with Jesus and free of the cruel imprisonment of cancer. It has been hard to watch her go this way and so, so sudden.

Yesterday, I was out walking and listening to a song by Andrew Peterson from his recently released Resurrection Letters Volume II album. It is called "Love Is a Good Thing" and prompted me to reflect on what God is trying to teach us when it comes to loving others through a difficult season of life. Quite honestly, the song moved me to tears. I so often want to learn how to love like Jesus in the "packaging" I'd prefer, usually the packages with soft edges and lots of bubble wrap inside to cushion the blows. His plans are usually vastly different from mine, often involve much more creatively painful refining in His furnace, but yield far better and lasting results for Kingdom living in the end. I'll just leave you with the lyrics and a little explanation of the song from Andrew himself.



Love Is a Good Thing
It knocked me down, it dragged me out, it left me there for dead.
It took all the freedom I wanted and gave me something else instead.
It blew my mind, it bled me dry, it hit me like a long goodbye,
And nobody here knows better than I that it's a good thing;
Love is a good thing.

It'll fall like rain on your parade, laugh at the plans that you tried to make;
It'll wear you down till your heart just breaks and it's a good thing.
Love is a good thing.

It'll wake you up in the middle of the night, it'll take just a little too much.
It'll burn you like a cinder till you're tender to the touch.
It'll chase you down, and swallow you whole;
It'll make your blood run hot and cold.
Like a thief in the night it'll steal your soul, and that's a good thing
Love is a good thing.

It'll follow you down to the ruin of your great divide,
And open the wounds that you tried to hide;
And there in the rubble of your heart that died,
You'll find a good thing;
Love is a good thing

Take cover, the end is near.
Take cover, do not fear.
It'll break your will, it'll change your mind
It'll loose all the chains of the ties that bind.
If you're lucky you'll never make it out alive, and that's a good thing
Love is a good thing.

It can hurt like a blast from a hand grenade
When all that used to matter is blown away;
There in the middle of the mess it made you'll find a good thing
Yes, it's worth every penny of the price you paid
It's a good thing
Love is a good thing, love is a good thing
Do not fear.