Calling All Lovers: Augustine (or was it John Caputo?) once famously probed: “What do I love when I love my God?”
I think that Tom Oord in his Nature of Love: A Theology begins to take seriously, perhaps for the first time 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 absorption into the One 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 faith community in Raleigh – is actually a cover by Tortoise, when they collaborated with Bonnie “Prince” Billy.
I use this song frequently – working out on the ROM, and 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 (as the risen Christ)
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!
This was originally posted on January 23, 2011.
