How did we already get here? Week 5 of our 6 week #love series? So journaling was for some easy & for others hard for us as we tried to track and measure just how much God loves us (and in what ways). However, whether we found it easier or a bit more challenging everyone was really thinking about just how much God loves us. And anyone present might have observed that in general there was some discomfort in considering God’s act of love toward us…
As a note — this I believe is something many of us struggle with — perhaps because we want to be independent, perhaps because we are uncomfortable getting something for nothing — perhaps because we really want to earn our grace, or not to need grace at all — and that is in so many ways the essence of grace…We can’t earn grace, God gives it. And if we didn’t need grace, well then God would not have bankrupted heaven to offer the world Jesus Christ — God with us (in flesh!).
Moving through discomfort we turned to hearing some scriptures which we might be more comfortable with. Might being an operative word because well, the scripture selections did tell us what to do — and it was in so many ways love understood as a verb, a verb with an object other than us — and yet these scriptures are challenging. Consider 1 Corinthians 16:14 (only 1 verse),
Let all you do be done in love.
Let that sink in for a moment, “Let all you do be done in love.” Really; really God? Everything? And we talked about if we could do this out of duty, we talked about if we could do it in our own strength, we talked about those who are easier to love — and considered too those who are harder to love! There was mention of loving enemies and praying for those who persecute us; a confession that often it is easier to love those who are not so near to us (neighbors, family…); and the offering that we can really only do this through God — because of God — that to love is a gift God gives us because we can’t really do it on our own.
The conversation was sincere and rich. And thankfully one person had named earlier in the conversation that when they feel most loved by God is when they can be used by God/useful to others. Some others agree & I find this sentiment an important one to consider — that we might feel very loved by God as we are able to use the gifts/skills/talents/intellect/experiences…God has blessed us with to bless others. <– There are HUGE implications to this, inviting us perhaps to think differently about so many things (just one example being can we feel loved by God in the work we do whether we consider it a career or a job — even perhaps a job we don’t particularly enjoy?). And our homework for this past week might allow us to think through some of those things/some of those implications. Because our homework invites us to look out & to look to love.
The Homework:
- We are looking “OUT” this week – so last week we journaled how much GOD loves us. This week our task is to LOVE others to the best of our ability (maybe even better than ever before!). We are to measure how loving we are to others….Let’s see how GREAT we can love!!!
- And of course, the perpetual invitation is to sit in your own belovedness because well — YOU ARE LOVED of God — and God delights in you!
So….I’m excited to see y’all on Sunday & I’ll finish with a quote from St. Vincent de Paul which we heard last week,
We must love God, but let it be in the work of our bodies, in the sweat of our brows. For very often many acts of love for God, of kindness, of good will, and other similar inclinations and interior practices of a tender heart, although good and very desirable, are yet very suspect when they do not lead to the practice of effective love.
Blessings!
~ Rev. Sabrina Slater