Bleeding Love

Do do you got a first aid kit handy? Ahhh....Lyrics from my current fav pop song (the ladies pictured below will tell you!) "Damaged" by P. Diddy's own Danity Kane. It's catchy, and I love to request this song to djs (again, the ladies below will tell you) and see their reactions because it's such the teeny bopper pop song, but I love it!

It seems lately my favorite songs are about the blood and guts of love. The title to this blog post is the title to Leona Lewis' summer hit (which I also loved until they out played it on the radio):
"my heart is crippled by the vein that you keep on closing...you cut me open". Pretty gruesome!

And there are- as there are with many pop songs- Christian analogies that could be made, and they are pretty obvious, so I won't patronize you by pointing them out. I will just say that I was contemplating in prayer this morning the vulnerability of Christ's love on the cross and I see how we as a culture long for this and relate to this, even if we don't recognize Christ as the source. We just long for the blood and guts of love, as is evident with such lyrics and songs.

We all fear being vulnerable and 'cut open'. We fear 'bleeding love'. Yet we all have gone through it and experienced it. I will argue that the reason that 'chick flicks' are so popular is because we can relate to the vulnerability of the main character, and we desire the climax where he/she finally reveals his/her pining love. Exposing their hearts, their love, for all to see. We secretly wish we were that brave. Or maybe we have been, and we know their pain.

As I was praying this morning, looking at the crucifix and seeing Jesus in the vulnerable position of hanging on the cross, not holding back love, but revealing it- and literally 'bleeding love'- I was struck by how we all long to be brave enough to do that. And we long to have that done for us.

Love is messy. Love is risky. Love is all out there in the open. It's scary. It can be gruesome.
But that's why we love it when we receive it, and why we long to see it for ourselves. We can't turn away from the trainwreck that is love!

I hope this is making sense. It all did in my head this morning.

I guess I'm just seeing the risk it takes for love and the scariness of it, but then there is always a happy ending- whether that be reciprocating love or not- there always is the Resurrection. Which makes the bleeding love worth it.

Today's Gospel was about a king inviting people to a banquet, a party. And they turned down his invitation. How many of us would turn down a free party? Even if we didn't like the person hosting, we probably would go for the free booze and eats. It's hard to put ourselves out there like Christ does- out on the cross, free invitations. We reject it, just like we might be rejected if we put ourselves out there, but as in any chick flick, there is always some resolution. Always some growth in character. And so we 'keep bleeding. keep keep bleeding love'.