Love is Love

lungfish

Calling All Lovers:

Augustine (or was it John Caputo?) once famously probed:

What do I love when I love my God?

Tom Oord in his Nature of Love: A Theology takes seriously, like few others in contemporary theology, ‘GOD IS LOVE’ as a starting point for theology, spirituality, and practice. I think his project is exciting (you should really check out the book if you haven’t already), and if it resonates, it begs the question: Who do I love? What is love? And how can we explore/express these questions together trans-rationally, devotionally, ecstatically, in song?

Well, if these are questions that matter to you, I’ve got your mystical poetry for the dance between the One and the Many, today.

This is Love is Love, coming from post-hardcore band Lungfish‘s visionary, wheel-within-a-wheel frontman, Daniel Higgs. The version that so resonates with me – and with Trinity’s Place, my late, lamented faith community in Raleigh – is actually a cover by Tortoise, when they collaborated with Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

I use this song frequently as a prelude to prayer or contemplation. Here it is:

The lyrics are anybody’s guess. Here’s mine:

Love is love in the shape things take

Love is love in the womb of wombs (wound of wounds?)

Love is love at the highest height

Love is love at the deepest depth all right

Love is love as the risen rise 

Love is love in the sight of creation

Love is love in patterns of light

Love is love at the root of the grave

Love is love in the life of all life

Love is love in echoes through space

Love is love a vigil for this world (a vision for this world?)

Love is love in the marrow of new bones

Love is love as above so below

Love is love in the record of events

Love must be love to let time begin

Love is love always reconciled

Love is love in the wind and shade

Love is love – alien and strange

Love is love in truth and falsehood

And, for your added enjoyment, here’s the original Lungfish version. Sink in!

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  1. Love Week | achurchforstarvingartists - February 12, 2013

    […] Morrell wrote a solid post today about what it means to really love.  And, of course, Jesus said it […]

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