To be fully known and fully loved: a
beautiful phrase that has recently occupied my interest. As a matter of fact, I
stumbled on a beautiful piece that suggested that being fully known and not
loved is painful, being fully loved and not fully known is somewhat scary but
being fully known and fully loved is definitely ecstatic!
Truth is we all want to be loved,
accepted for who and what we are. In as much as wearing a mask is what we
occasionally do, the rationale is simply that deep in our heart of hearts, we
do not want to live under a fake pretentious garb but want to be seen and read
by men, and be accepted at the same time.
One evening, I was being taken home by
a group of friends and noticing the silence in the car (except for chit-chats
here and there) I suggested that we play some music. It was immediately
suggested that I be the DJ, which entailed that I play music from my phone.
Nothing scary about that… yet.
We were a group of five Seventh-day
Adventist young men and women who were coming from a church outing. We were
affiliated to a mission group. As a matter of fact, two of us held significant
positions in that mission group whilst the others had their own sphere of
influence. Remember, we are SDA!
And so, being nominated as DJ, I
quickly put a disclaimer that songs I’m about to play may not prima facie be
the ideal SDA music, but “there is depth in the lyrics guys!”
Fast forward, the songs (and not
hymns) start playing and we all danced and sang along till I got home. Bliss!
There is something about that moment
that made me feel at home, gave me a sense of belonging. There I was, jamming
my favorite songs and nobody gave a stern look at me, nor judged my taste. Its
like our minds had met and there was no way of undoing that!
So often than not, we try to twist and
squeeze ourselves into something we aren’t just to be loved and accepted but I
heard somewhere that the best things in life are free; that you do not have to
squeeze and stress yourself to be loved, because genuine love, loves inspite of
who you are. It sees, it hears, it understands, it embraces and it transforms.
Genuine love is love that is all-eyes, all-observing, alert yet doesn’t excuse
faults but embraces them so much that they are consumed in love.
For a certain part of my life, I
craved the acceptance and went to great lengths to obtain it. It was stressful!
When I stopped chasing the wind, I discovered that I became free, happy and
content in my own skin. My faults were plainly seen and lost in the genuine
love of those who truly cared and instead of striving so hard to be accepted,
it came naturally.
There is this beautiful hymn (I’m SDA
after all) that concludes “He looked beyond my faults and saw my need.” That is
the love that knows, that sees but loves anyhow. That is the love that
transforms you into being a beautiful version of you and lets you have fun
while doing that!
There is nothing more precious than
the feeling of being at home… where you are fully known and fully loved.
To be fully loved but not fully known is actually very irritating. It usually comes with someone trying to box you into something you definitely aren't.
ReplyDeleteI guess to fully understand that you have the estatic ''fully loved and known" , you have to be hit by a number of the other two and they can be quite many and take a huge chunk of your lifetime.
To be fully known and to be fully loved sounds like an ideal case and somehow paradoxical.
ReplyDeleteIndeed love does consume faults, though it's not always the case. But we got to love anyway.
An insightful and profound article indeed with many facets.
Thanks.