Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Completed Love

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.-- I John 4:8
This is a brief encapsulation of the mystery and crazy depths of Christian faith.  Take a few minutes and just work through this one verse phrase by phrase.  Use what's called the Lectio Divina method where you simply breathe consciously and listen intently as you weigh what each phrase means and implies about life.  (For complete instructions on Lectio Divina click here.)

I recognize the intrusiveness of throwing in my own thoughts, so you need go no farther if you wish to do this process on your own with God.  But, if you wish to hear some inadequate ramblings of my listening carry on.
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No one has ever seen God... I get so weary of arguments that wage over non-existence of God simply because no one (living) has seen God.  Yet, I know we can and do discern the Living Presence of our Divine Lord.  We CAN know God is there by a partaking or drinking in of The Spirit that creates and makes moist the dry places in our lives.

IF we love one another... Loving others is a choice.  We choose how we're going to walk out the door in the morning -- will we put on our galoshes intent on tromping right on through all the stupidities and insensibilities of which others are vastly capable, willingly wrapping the cloak of forgiveness around the shoulders of these same whacky children of God?  Or might we be bitter and angry toward the "idiots" castigating them as subhuman?  IF is the word there's a choice to be had... choose wisely.  To violate the IF clause negates the THEN clause and here you lose something huge.

(THEN) God lives in us.... Are ye able to open the door by loving intentionally to welcome into your very being the completeness of God?  What would it mean to you for God to be fully and completely alive in you?   Alive in others?  Alive throughout the world in every living soul?  It is prevented from happening simply because too many reject the IF you love one another part.

His love is made complete in us... When we think of God's love we think of something so large and encompassing that it fills not just our world, but that of the universe as well.  "Let there be light" was a love pronouncement that emblazoned itself upon ALL creation; and yet, the power and range of love from that moment onward is in us and propelled onward from us into those around us, into those not yet born, and perhaps even into those who have gone before us.  Complete love knows no bounds of time or space; and it IS ours in this promise from scripture.

Prayer:
God, through your loving our loving brings you to completeness.  Help us to not fail in making you a real and living presence in every aspect of life on earth.  Amen.

 

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