"A vacuum of love" a clip from SoulCravings by Erwin McManus
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Entry #14 "A Vacuum of love" (abridged)
In our own way we are all trying to find our tribe. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment is, His response was simple and straightforward: "You are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." And then He added, "And you must love your neighbor as yourself."
It seems Jesus simply couldn't restrain Himself to one commandment, but gave His inquirers two of them. Maybe it's because He couldn't separate the effect that connecting to God would have on your relationship to people. Really, Jesus is saying that the most important relationship to God is love. Love, it seems, has two arenas where it's played out- in our relationship with God and in our relationship with people.
What's on God's heart is not a list of rules or commands, but the expansion of love... All God wants for us in this is that we live in healthy, loving relationships.
At first glance this would seem pretty easy, yet life experience tells us that this may be the most difficult task we've ever been called to, which is why the order of the Great Commandment is not incidental but absolutely critical. When we live in an intimate relationship with God, we are able to love ourselves and become passionate about loving others. When we are disconnected from God, we find ourselves increasingly empty on love. Jesus, it seems, is certain that the more you love God, the more you will love people.
A hurt person's life is not the story of one person journeying in isolation. Their quest, like so many of ours, is a search for belonging. Their story began with a painful realization that those who are supposed to love us the most often hurt us the worst. The dark side of human community can lead us to give up on God or to recognize he is exactly what we need most. When people hurt us, we blame God. We wonder why God would allow such horrible things to happen.
We wrongly conclude that God is indifferent to our pain and suffering. Many of us give up on love because those who were supposed to love us never came through.
You don't have to be a genius to know that a mother is supposed to love her daughter; a father his son; that children are intended to be born into a world of doting parents who love their children as if they've received the world's most extraordinary gift. If you need evidence that something is broken in the human spirit, just look carefully here. There's something wrong with us when we cannot love even those who are our flesh and blood.There's something desperately wrong with us when we find ourselves experiencing animosity or, at best indifference, toward the ones we should be sharing intimacy.
Yet many of us grow up in a vacuum of love, and it doesn't have to be abusive for this to be true. I know way too many people who have grown up with responsible parents who were entirely unresponsive. Some of the adults who have the most difficult time with love are the ones who were given everything they ever wanted as kids except love. There is no substitute for warmth, affection, and intimacy. The truth is, we were designed for relationship, and when our relationships don't work, they affect how we see God, how we relate to God, and even whether we will believe in him. We are born to belong, we are created for connection, and whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we spend our whole lives trying to fit in, get in, and stay in. It almost doesn't even matter what "in" is; we just want to belong somewhere.
http://www.awakenhumanity.org/
Entry #14 "A Vacuum of love" (abridged)
In our own way we are all trying to find our tribe. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment is, His response was simple and straightforward: "You are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." And then He added, "And you must love your neighbor as yourself."
It seems Jesus simply couldn't restrain Himself to one commandment, but gave His inquirers two of them. Maybe it's because He couldn't separate the effect that connecting to God would have on your relationship to people. Really, Jesus is saying that the most important relationship to God is love. Love, it seems, has two arenas where it's played out- in our relationship with God and in our relationship with people.
What's on God's heart is not a list of rules or commands, but the expansion of love... All God wants for us in this is that we live in healthy, loving relationships.
At first glance this would seem pretty easy, yet life experience tells us that this may be the most difficult task we've ever been called to, which is why the order of the Great Commandment is not incidental but absolutely critical. When we live in an intimate relationship with God, we are able to love ourselves and become passionate about loving others. When we are disconnected from God, we find ourselves increasingly empty on love. Jesus, it seems, is certain that the more you love God, the more you will love people.
A hurt person's life is not the story of one person journeying in isolation. Their quest, like so many of ours, is a search for belonging. Their story began with a painful realization that those who are supposed to love us the most often hurt us the worst. The dark side of human community can lead us to give up on God or to recognize he is exactly what we need most. When people hurt us, we blame God. We wonder why God would allow such horrible things to happen.
We wrongly conclude that God is indifferent to our pain and suffering. Many of us give up on love because those who were supposed to love us never came through.
You don't have to be a genius to know that a mother is supposed to love her daughter; a father his son; that children are intended to be born into a world of doting parents who love their children as if they've received the world's most extraordinary gift. If you need evidence that something is broken in the human spirit, just look carefully here. There's something wrong with us when we cannot love even those who are our flesh and blood.There's something desperately wrong with us when we find ourselves experiencing animosity or, at best indifference, toward the ones we should be sharing intimacy.
Yet many of us grow up in a vacuum of love, and it doesn't have to be abusive for this to be true. I know way too many people who have grown up with responsible parents who were entirely unresponsive. Some of the adults who have the most difficult time with love are the ones who were given everything they ever wanted as kids except love. There is no substitute for warmth, affection, and intimacy. The truth is, we were designed for relationship, and when our relationships don't work, they affect how we see God, how we relate to God, and even whether we will believe in him. We are born to belong, we are created for connection, and whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we spend our whole lives trying to fit in, get in, and stay in. It almost doesn't even matter what "in" is; we just want to belong somewhere.
http://www.awakenhumanity.org/
1 comment:
Indeed! It is all about relationships!
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