Rev. Dr. Liz Mosbo VerHage

Pastor. Professor. Consultant. Coach. Author. Wife & Mom.

Costly Love and Living

ordinary SACRED, POVERTY & HUNGER

I have never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, as it seems like the original point (a not-married Saint who sent caring missives to his community from prison), has become co-opted into an opportunistic time for Hallmark and candy/flower stores to cash in.  I enjoy greeting cards and having dinner out, don’t get me wrong.  But celebrating love – romantic, agape, friendship, family, for others in the world and for ourselves, love for and from God – is a high task.  It means more then spending a lot or cleaning up for a date.  So critiques of aspects of this day aside, let’s celebrate love – true, costly love – let’s remember God’s love and mission in the world and the invitation we have to join.  Let’s support each other as we learn how to live

https://xenicallab.com/warning/

into that kind of costly love in our every day places and in the midst of violence and brokeness. 

I am always really moved by this quote, titled “The Cost of Living,” from the Indian, non-violent social activist, Arundhati Roy (author of “God of Small Things”):   

“To love. To be loved.

To never forget your own insignificance.

To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places.

To pursue beauty to its lair.

To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.

To respect strength, never power.

Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away.

And never, never to forget.”

– Arundhati Roy

3 thoughts on “Costly Love and Living”

  1. Thanks Liz for writing about costly love. We want love to be easy, but it’s so much more. I have yet to read Arundhati Roy’s book – God of Small Things. Have you read it?

  3. Liz,
    Thought this poem belonged on your blog. My friend Jamie, who has her masters in Appalachian Studies introduced me to this African American Appalachian poet, Patricia A. Johnson. Her poem is one of simple joy in the midst of poverty- it really touched me when Jamie read it because it reminded me of God so present in our ordinary lives, a God who is closest to those who often have so little…
    From Patricia A. Johnson’s book Stain My Days Blue:

    SNOW CREAM

    if you had told me
    the winter it snowed three feet
    the same day my older brother turned ten
    and mama sent me out with a bowl
    i filled to the brim.
    she made snow cream
    slick as egg white,
    specially for my brother
    and we sang…

    if you had told me then
    i would not have believed,
    we were poor.

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