Dec 11, 2016

 

Follower of Jesus (5)

“The most important one” answered Jesus,

“is this: ‘Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, The Lord is one Lord.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart

And with all your soul and with all your mind

And with all your strength.’

And the second is this:

‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no commandment greater than these.” (4)

Mark 12:29-31

Last week we covered what can be called “Valentines’ Day” love, or infatuation, or ego-based love, which seems to cover so much of the fictional characteristics of love and too many of cases of human love. Most of this is a case of loving the idea of love, or what the other person can give the one who is ‘in love’, rather than the deeper mutual sharing of self and life that characterizes what I call ‘soul-love’.

Soul-Love

God expressed the purity of love when the very nature of God was revealed: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16 (NIV). Soul-love is the image of God, Love, that characterizes who we are, one “Made in the Image of God”. (Genesis 1:27) This form of love is who we are, the richness of the eternal gift to one another – even when we do not recognize our own essence. Love of this nature is the wonder of our created universe, the gift of life itself and all the wonders of our experience. Soul-love is a never ending stream of giving and receiving, as illustrated by the concept of the Trinity, the Father (creator), Son (the created), and the Holy Spirit (the creative force) that flows in a continuous dance in all we see, feel, and are.

Soul-love has no boundaries, as it is the essence of everything. Soul-love is who we are, limited only by our human constraints of moving to that point of freedom. We spend our lives attempting to consciously reach that level, as we know deep in our beings that this state of love is where we long to be – and the ironic part of it is that is level is who we are, not something to reach but we need only discover our own nature. When we see someone who has consciously recognized who they are, like Nelson Mandela or Mother Theresa, we instantly know who and what they are. But, you see, all they did was become aware of who they are – just as you and I are, right now, this very instant.

If only we could see ourselves.

I have been asked many times “Why am I here?” and “Is there a purpose in life?” and many similar questions. The answer is clear: we are here, as the image of God, to move to the point of recognizing who we are so we can fit back into that God-image when we leave here.

And we will – that is a guarantee. All of us, no matter who we seem to be on the surface.

“God does not make junk!”

The problem we have is with that word “love”. It has myriad meanings, and to help clarify things I will use descriptive words such as ego-love or soul-love or human-love to describe various forms of love. (I bet I caught you off guard a bit by the term ‘human-‘love’ didn’t I?) Soul-love is part of our very being, even if we seldom express it, at appears when anything catches our breath – a sunset, great music (it is not called soul-stirring for nothing), a baby – or a loved ones’ eyes.

We will next look at human-love, and how we express love in our life.

Meditation

My inmost Soul, that part of me that is the image of God, I recognize in You the very creator of my life and being, that force that creates me in an on-going manner that never ends. I place myself here, right now, in the safety of Your Being, where there is no pain and there is only life everlasting; filled with joy and happiness. You have granted me eternal life, giving my very image Your reflection, so that I may be a clear stream of Your love now, this instant, without fail, in this world of ours that is crying for love so strongly.

I have been eternally blessed, given love over all that I see, expressed in all that I behold throughout the day. I bow in gratitude this day for all that I have, all that I have had in the eternal past, and all that is before me in the eternal future.

 

 

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