Love is Stress

With My Dear Philosopher

In February, I posted on WhatsApp that Christians are to love everyone, and you, Philosopher, challenged the Christian ‘loving’, questioning how a Christian would express that to a thief or LGBTQ+ person.

‘Love is Stress’ in action

This devolved into a chain of reactions. To end it, I wrote you the first draft of the response below, but did not publish it because my phone froze on Valentine’s Day. And though February is the month for falling, I did in March. But after several corrections like you do with my pronunciations, this version makes it out today:

Proposed Title: What is Loving/How Do We Love?

To understand this, let’s answer more questions.

1. Who dictates right and wrong?

‘No be anybody business who you wan climb?’ — Falz, Hypocrite.

To fully understand your stance, we had a quick call.

Your stance was not against Christians but the faith itself which won’t accept people entirely for who they are. (In your words: the contradiction is the hypocrisy)

When Falz’s Moral Instruction dropped, I jammed it till my brain locked in all of the lines. But whenever this line came after Demmie Vee’s beautiful voice carried the chorus, my mind would pause on it. This wasn’t the first time I would try to understand what it means to be a homosexual, and I wrote a fiction story in 2019 to show that the feelings are as real as those of heterosexuals.

The truth is that I agree with Falz. It is no one’s business — but God’s. So, why am I stressing, writing this? Because He made my business His, and His became mine, which is the best representation of ‘Love is stress’ like I always tell you, Philosopher. And let’s not get into Absolute and Relative Morality.

Here is the reality: If there is indeed a Sovereign Creator (which I believe is the God of the Bible, and Jesus is the evidence), then He decides the rules of what/those He created. So if He says He created humans male and female to marry, then that settles it. To do otherwise is to suggest you have a better way the world should work, creating your own laws, and becoming your own God — the root of all sin.

I may have tried explaining this, but here is the actual truth: the Christian faith is not about not accepting people for who they are. It is God bending way over backwards so that we do not settle for any version less than what He created us to be. Who would know the greatest capabilities of a creation/creature better than the maker?

2. What is Loving to a Christian?

We all know loving is not sex. I can’t have sex with everyone or thing to show love. Neither can you have the same level of affection for everyone. However, there is an expected level of loving that we naturally hold everyone accountable to, without thinking about who set the standard. Again, the Sovereign Creator set it. Definitely not Kant, Virtue Ethics, or Utilitarianism.

For Christians, our example of Love is in God showing His Love in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ so that all may be saved. Then, He told everyone who believes to tell others that they may also believe — the business.

So in everything a Christian does, the end goal is that many more may believe and that we may be many in heaven and the new earth. I’m kind to you because of Christ. I forgive because Christ has changed me. I’m gentle because I have received the life of Christ. Not because we deserve it, but because of Christ, so everyone may come to know Him and spend eternity with Him.

3. Is Preaching love?

If there is eternity and I have found the way, please, what greater love can I have than to share the news with you? If all humans’ full potential can only be unlocked in God, and the access has been made free and unlimited, why should I want anyone to experience less?

4. What is the hypocrisy?

My dear philosopher, I understand your concern. I once posted about the LGBTQ+ when I also had the ‘acceptance’ belief. Another friend and a ‘Christian’ responded that they should be killed. They later recanted, but I see how this can be expressed in other ways. And the cancel culture is not of God.

If there is no God, then we can all do as we like without consequences. But if there is a God, it is hypocrisy not to make you see there is one.

5. Do I love Philosopher?

As a Christian, yes. As a friend, the ‘stress’ has grown significantly. Philosopher is very intentional. A few days ago, he reminded me of a play we planned to see. Between the incident at the beginning of this article and today, we have met countless times, including seeing a play around the time I cemented a new stance on Feminism (I hope to share soon).

Now, I tease you about marriage in ‘LGBTQ+’ faith. God has blessed you with a thorough mind. You’re loving, a Michelin-star-worthy cook, a thoughtful gift giver, and know far more about the Christian faith than you let on. You still won’t tell me your genotype, and we disagree on most of the Christian teachings I share, but I love you all the same. You stress me. I stress you. But love is stress.

Happy Birthday, Philosopher, my friend. To seeing LOGOS clearly, Cheers.