Feb. 10 - "Flame" (002)

It's a cold, bleak day, somewhere in a rural flatland. Rob pulls his truck over on the side of a country road and starts walking across a field. As he walks, he begins talking about the Song of Songs and the image of love it evokes.

Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires. - Song of Songs, 2:7 (NIV)

• Why is love so complex?
• Do we generally, in today's world, treat the concept of love the same way as the people in Song of Songs? As a sacred, beautiful, and mysterious thing?

Rob continues about how the word "love" in English might have lost its meaning. "We'll tell somebody that we love them and in the same breath, we'll talk about how much we love a new car, or a certain pair of pants. I mean, I love my wife, and I also love tacos?"

• Do you think the word "love" loses its meaning when we use it for so many things?
• Does it affect our understanding of what real love is?

The Song of Songs, Rob explains, is written in the Hebrew language, which has at least three different words for love. These are Raya (friendship, companionship), Ahava (commitment), and Dod (the physical, sexual element).

You are beautiful from head to toe, my dear love, beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless. - Song of Songs 4:7 (MSG)

"We have our raya flame, our ahava flame and our dod flame," says Rob. "One flame burning all by itself will never be as hot as all the flames burning together."

• How many relationships have you seen where all the flames are burning as one?
• Do you think it's possible to be completely satisfied without having all three flames burning?

Rob proposes that "True sexuality is vast and mysterious. It involves all of you." This means not just giving your body but your soul and spirit.

• What does it mean to give all of yourself to another person?
• Are you giving everything you've got?

Love is patient, love is kind, love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly,; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NASB)