Your Love Is Strong

Ok, so thanks to the influence of my brother Tim, who gave me the songs to add to my iTunes, and my friend Jason, who lovingly plays the songs incessantly on guitar and turned me onto the easy playability of them, I have gradually come under the spell of the EP's of Jon Foreman.

He falls into the category, at least most of the time, of music that is Christian but is not necessarily Christian Music. I tend to be a little averse to the latter but gravitate strongly to the former. And it's probably a case of predisposition, but I really enjoy Jon Foreman and Dustin Kensrue for these reasons.

My most recent haunt is Your Love Is Strong, from the Spring EP (one of four for each season). Often times, refrains of songs will bring home the points we need to hear, but in this case, it's a little bridge that takes me somewhere. Let me work my way into where the song overlapped with the trains of thought running in me already.

The root of my daily, lived faith is that I really enjoy finding God, finding Christ, in the interactions I have with people. I need to be better about placing in interactions with strangers and those I don't know, but when it comes to people I know and those I am meeting, I find it every time and it's spectacular.

Here in Ireland so far, it's been ubiquitous. Of course, the parish staff, which backs and supports and emboldens us, have been incredible in helping us out. People have blown through the house to add a few things - a fence and gate, a toilet paper roll holder; people at mass have been warm and welcoming in introductions - Kurt and I even ran into a woman at the grocery store who noticed us and gave us a lift home; we mingled with high schoolers after a prayer service who were delightfully friendly and talkative; a parishioner connected Kurt and I to a local running club; the club's coach offered us free membership and gave us the full training schedule to join as we could. That's not nearly the exhaustive list. It's been no problem to bask in the hospitality of Christ over here.

But before this, I could come from a position of strong faith. Most recently, it's been my Vision communities. 2010 helped solidify me as the person I have become, affirming my gifts and embracing me as a listener and talker alike. 2011 took the torch and ran with it. I was stronger and more mature, and my new family let me gently lead them while giving me so much at the same time to grow. They taught me the power of walking a journey in community, sharing so that you learn and grow together, forging a powerful bond that transcends being dispersed abroad and away.

But before this (at least Vision 2011), I found incredible stability and great love with my girlfriend, Katherine. We profoundly founded our relationship on honesty, and that, coupled with the love we have come to share, has created a mutual support system that allows both of us to be completely who we are. We can share things without fear making the other mad, and everything we're thinking and doing is welcome to be talked about anytime. It makes for a really life-giving relationship that makes me more comfortable and confident being myself, and it's the type of relationship that is the model for all my other friendships, where I can give and receive love because I'm knowing it there.

But before this, I had Folk Choir. I spent four years immersing myself in a community where one receives absolute and complete permission to be his or her self. We share a common goal in giving permission to people to pray through song, whether in the basilica loft or on the road across the country. But we share a deeper, familial bond because of the time we spend together and the way we let our lives into our community. We become brothers and sisters, more than just colleagues - chatting it up on buses, sharing host families, and frolicking on campus and on tour. Our music ministry is an extension of the lives we spend together.

And before this, I had my high school. I had campus ministers and religion teachers who cared about me. They took special interest in me and encouraged and affirmed me to participate and later lead others in religious things. I had retreat leaders who gave a damn - people who wanted more than a faith-related resume line, who shared themselves to help me see how I could do it, too.

But it all started with my family. It took my mom and dad's deciding to baptize my brothers and I and raise us in a Catholic household. We went to mass as a family event. I went with my dad to the Easter Vigil because it was fun to share that major liturgy in our faith with someone I loved who loved to be there. I got to go to Catholic school through their commitment, and my mom taught at our school because she delights in teaching children about the sacraments and preparing them for their firsts.

Love begins to be taught somewhere, and I have been blessed enough to have started learning it at home, from the start, with Christ involved. It has followed me through all my days to here.

And it's because of this that I am able to build friendships where that love of Christ can flourish. Love that affirms and permits but also criticizes and cautions. Love that wants what's best for me, but not at the cost of who I am or who I could be. I have parents and brothers and a girlfriend and best friends and friends who offer me the ear of Christ and the voice of Christ.

I am not saying that each person's every word is the will of God articulated in speech, but I believe I can trust my relationships to be - albeit not the fully disstilled version - the will and peace of God given to me. Grace mediated to me from my Christ in others.

You all send me on my way with your care.

So why Jon Foreman? The first bridge from this song asks,

So why do I worry?
Why do I freak out?
God knows what I need.
You know what I need.

Your love is strong...

If I am faithful, if I am reflective and prayerful, if my eyes keep opening to grace, you - my friends, my family - can be the love of God, very real-ly in my life. And your love is strong. :)