“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to get through this thing called…life.”
So begins one of my favorite Prince songs, Let’s Go Crazy. But just getting through life is such an uninspired goal.
Life isn’t to be endured, it is to be celebrated!
I’m particularly aware of celebrating life with my beloved as today my wife has successfully completed another trip around the sun, another turning of the calendar, another year of life. And today we will celebrate.
Beloved.
How did you say that word?
Be-loved or be-loved-ed?
To be be-loved is to be well liked, to be thought of highly, to be cherished. Certainly all things I could say of my wife and others.
Be-love-ed feels to me more like a naming. This understanding makes me think not about many people but about my wife specifically. She is my beloved.
Now I may be misusing the word or splitting grammatical hairs, but I like the way this words says something about this specific relationship. It feels like a word that is born more in the heart than in the mind, not just an intellectual love, but a core of my being love.
The best part of beloved (however you say it) is that we are God’s beloved.
Simply go trough the motions of life? Not with a God who loves us and celebrates us and desires we love with the same love God shares with us.
I’m off to do some celebrating and some loving. I hope you get to celebrate and love someone you call beloved as well.
Life is better together,
Shawn
Check out what a few of my friends taking this journey with me think of this word…
Big Rubber Band Ball 