February 7, 2007

• I’m back!

  

  I made it! To begin things, I will start by sharing an important lesson I learned: what love is. Yes, there is a definition that I think works very well! It all has to do with our purpose. What is our purpose, why are we alive? Why did God create us?
  Our purpose is to praise, reverence, and serve God. It sounds simple, but really think about it. Think about the people who you know have loved you. Did they not praise, reverence/respect, and serve you? Did you not do the same for them out of love? Here are some of my thoughts from Day 3 of the retreat.

  “God loved me even before I existed, before I was even growing in my mother’s womb. I once ONLY existed in God’s love. He created me because He loves me, therefore, my first purpose is to BE LOVED BY GOD, TO LET HIM LOVE ME, TO ACCEPT HIS LOVE.”
  How many people live their entire life without ever thinking about this? About LETTING God love them? About accepting it? It can be a scary thing to let oneself be loved, much less by the One capable of loving perfectly!

  “My second purpose, due to the nature of love, is to return His love with love of my own, to love Him back.”
  Pretty straight-forward.

  “My third purpose, because He loves me and I love Him is to love ALL of His people, as He, my God who I love and who loves me, dwells and exists within each person.”
  Kinda sounds like some Gospel, don’t it?

  “In praising, being reverent, and serving God, I fulfill all of these purposes, all three united in the love of God. In fulfilling this great threefold purpose of loving, I unite myself with God’s love in this life as I was united with Him before my existence, and since I was alive IN Him then, saved from non-existence by His love, and I am alive with Him now and even will be after death. Death can only be conquered by love, true love, God’s love- it is the ONLY constant and incapable of death. If I unite myself with That Which Lives FOREVER, I am utterly saved, all because so very long ago He loved ME first!”
  So this is a very big step for just about anyone, and I hope it makes sense to you readers out there. You see, in fulfilling our purpose of loving God in praise, reverence, and service as He praises us, reverences us, and serves us, we maintain that unity we shared in Him before our earthly existence. If we maintain that our whole lives and die in that love, we go on existing within it.

  Sin goes against our purpose. Sin does not praise, reverence, or serve God and separates us from Him. God told Adam and Eve, “Don’t eat from that tree.” Adam and Eve ate from the tree. Sure, they admitted that the tree was very lovely and the fruit delicious (praise) and they probably still held God in great esteem (reverence) but then you come to service… did eating that fruit, despite God’s asking them not to, serve God? Nope. And look what happened, all because of ONE sin. One sin separated us from God. One. Look at how different the world is from the paradise of Eden because of that separation from God. YET despite sin flourishing in our world, despite our own sinfulness, God STILL loves us more than we are even capable of knowing. He RAINS gifts upon us- look at all the gifts in the world! Music, sensation, art, food, laughing, naps, warmth, rain, sunshine, a good cry, friends, adrenaline, cookies, peanut butter, pets, trees, Iowa, fireworks, stars, poetry, romance, stories… on and on! LIFE! EVERYTHING is a gift from God. Everything.
  With everything being a gift from God out of His love, even those gifts can help us fulfill our purpose, IF WE USE THEM LOVINGLY.
  -In using His gifts lovingly, we ACCEPT the love in which He gives His gifts and further praise (thank you!), reverence (respect the gift) and serve (use the gift well!) Him.
  -In using His gifts lovingly, we show OUR love for Him, especially when we praise, reverence, and serve Him through His gifts (art, music, etc.)
  -In using His gifts lovingly, we inevitably show our love for one another, sharing the gifts we receive with everyone so that all might better praise, reverence, and serve Him.

  So, if ever you are wondering if you are loving God or yourself or your neighbor as best as you can, ask yourself:
  -In doing (whatever), am I praising, reverencing, and serving God who loves me?
  -In doing (whatever), am I praising, reverencing, and serving myself in order to do the same for God even better?
  -In doing (whatever), am I praising, reverencing, and serving the God who dwells in others?

  If you try this, you might by amazed at what you find. It isn’t a sure fire method; love is far too mysterious to be defined in only a few words, but I think this is a great starting point to loving more truly.
  OK so I think I’ve said enough for now. Every few days I’ll try and answer questions people may have before I continue sharing my thoughts and experiences with all of you. I hope that they will help you all come closer to God, or at least give you something interesting to think about. Later!

  • 11:17 pm
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