rivener - n. a chilling hint of distance that creeps slowly into a relationship -- beginning to notice them laugh a little less, look away a little more, explain away their mood like it's no longer your business -- as if you're watching them fall out of love right in front of you, gradually and painfully, like a hole in the radiator that leaves your house a little colder with every passing day, whose only clue is a slow, unnerving drip - drip - drip. [Middle English riven, to rend, to cleave apart. Pronounced "riv-uh-ner."] (From John Koenig's The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows)
Is it possible to experience riveners in my relationship with Jesus? Can I be on the lookout for signs that my love is growing cold?
- Dust on my Bible
- Mumbling through songs I used to belt out
- Posting the praying hands emoji and considering it the equivalent of praying for someone
- Being satisfied with watching worship services online instead of actually attending and interacting with people who I once thought of as my brothers and sisters in Christ, but who are now just people who go to my church
It brings to mind the song by the seminal Jesus Music artist, Chuck Girard, "Return to Your First Love."
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Truth is...The words of Jesus in Revelation 2:2-5 (NLT): "I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first. Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first."
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