If you but knew the gift of God

I love some of the thoughts of Bernard Bro. He writes on Jesus and the power of love: Jesus loves as a pure gift, for the sake of nothing...He makes others better by loving them. Not only does he not accuse their mediocrity, although it is his full right to do so--he takes up their defense and gives his heart, his time, his trust.

I tend to forget that Jesus loves differently than I do, for Jeusus does not love for gain, or for need. He loves for the good it does me, and that kind of love is in itself a healing and empowering thing.

This is the kind of love Jesus invites me to follow. Think of the lives I might change if I offered a love that did not accuse or seek some selfish gain! Think of how I could help change the world if I gave a love that healed the despondent, bruised, or wounded heart and gave that heart hope?

Bro goes on to say: He [Jesus] calls forth, arouses, renews the best part in us, the part that is good and filled with hope and is always hidden in each and every person...and everyone who meets him once again begins to believe, to have trust in God and in themselves.

That line, renews the best part in us is worth all of my knowledge and learning. For if what is good is brought forth, I will leave behind that which drags me down and injures. And when I have trust in God and in myself, I have already conquered, regardless my circumstances.

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice," we read in Hosea 6:6. The words are more than poetic. They contain the secret to true power and change. As John 4:10 says, “If you but knew the gift of God.” God’s way of loving us is true gift. And  Lent is a good time to search and  remember that love, and pass it on.

In love unaware

Is it possible to fall in love with God and not realize it? Is it possible to spend your life wanting to love God, trying to love God, and not realize just how much you have come to authentically love God?

I think it is. And I think it shows in the most amazing ways.

I think you can love God deeply and not realize it, because you are so intent on how God loves you, how deep and profound and everlasting is that love, that you do not realize how deeply you love God in return. You have equated love for God with splendid deeds, or heroic gestures or profound thoughts. You felt the ideal unattainable, and so kept trying to love God just a tiny bit more. You did not realize that this tiny bit, built up day after day, brought you to mirror that Divine Love, so that you are caught up in the Fire, you are swept away with that indwelling.

And then something happens. It need not even be spiritual. But something happens that awakens your soul to the truth, I love God sooooo much!  It is an awesome realization. It is startling and heart warming and satisfying and exhilarating. Because it happened unawares. You were not thinking in terms of that, you were thinking in terms of service or devotion or reverence or respect. You were thinking of doing the right thing so that you could please this Almighty God. You were trying to live with God in mind, and think about God, and study about God. And God swept you up with Love, a Love you could never accomplish on your own, because it too is Divine.

That is my wish, my hope, my prayer for each one of us. That we will awaken in our souls and realize just how much we love God, deeply, passionately, and ardently.

It is a wonderful awakening!

God does not test us

The email said, "This is a test."  Just finishing up a very stressful semester of Grad school, my first thought was, "Oh No!!!!"

Tests are part of life. You cannot go anywhere or do anything unless you have performed some kind of test in some kind of field at some time in your life.

I see many people put the same attribute to God. This pain, this suffering, this trial is a test from God. Even the writers of scripture suggest that certain sufferings and trials are "tests from God". I beg to differ.

I think the mentality of God testing us comes more from our own creation, our own way of discerning or deciding. And of course, we think that God is like us, so God must test us to prove us. Wrong!

Therese of Lisieux could not believe God would treat us this way. Again and again she maintained that God is the Divine being of kindness and understanding, one who does not rejoice in our pain, but who suffers when we suffer.

And so I maintain, God does not test us like that. Life is just what it is. Instead of seeing ourselves forever tested, would we not do better to see life as a journey, with hills and valleys, with peaks and depressions, with light and darkness? And would we not do better to remember there is a Presence beside us at all times, sometimes felt, sometime hidden?

I think so. I think only finite, limited, human beings think up the testing concept. I think that the Divine Being, knowing all things, cares for us beyond our ability to understand or appreciate. I think the problem is, we just cannot grasp this kind of love.