The Power of Love

I've been constantly astounded by the power that love has to heal. My boss has been saying for years that the way we help our substance abusing clients to recover is by loving them. I used to think that was possibly idealistic and maybe even naive. Now I've seen this force at work firsthand. What does it mean to love someone? Does it mean saying the words and giving hugs? Does it mean taking care of all of their needs? Loving someone in an authentic way means doing away with one's own ego, one's own needs to be loved, and simply giving of oneself even when the other person doesn't recognize your efforts or actively tries to push you away.

I've recognized this incredible power lately especially with my children, both of which have pushed me away and been decidedly "unloveable" on several occasions. What I've tried to learn is that I don't always do what my children want me to do or give them what they want, but I never stop letting them know that I love them. Kids are good at sniffing out whether your love is authentic or just an ego ploy. When I'm able to convey sincere love for my children, or anyone else in my life, despite the circumstances, miraculous things happen.

Turns out this is what God is all about and what, I think, our life lesson is. Many people ignore their Creator, curse at Him, push Him away, and completely go against His wishes. And yet, He still loves us. Recognizing this persistent, unyielding, sincere and authentic love that God has for us in the face of our complete disobedience is often what finally reels us in. It's the same with our friends, co-workers, teammates and complete strangers that we encounter every day who are far from God. Persistent, unyielding sincere and authentic demonstrated love for others, especially in the face of rejection and sometimes outright hostility, is how we model for others what being a follower of Jesus means. Lately I've ben reading Evangelism Without Additives and the message is clear. Love those around you. You don't need to preach. Your loving example is enough. God will not require of us anymore than we are capable of. All we have to do is demonstrate our love for others in any and all circumstances and He will do the heavy lifting for us. Like my "poker ministry" in sports bars, the book advocates helping others, giving away free attention, and listening with intention, even with people that you might consider to be the "enemy" of Christianity. When your so-called "enemy" sees you loving them, their opinion of you and what you represent as a follower of Jesus is often turned on it's head. Next time you feel like preaching, criticizing, or labeling someone for their un-godly actions, try loving them instead and watch the miracle begin to unfold.

Faith, Surrender and Sacrifice

Most of my posts apparently have something to do with faith, surrender or sacrifice. I guess this is because these are the issues I struggle with on a daily basis. Somehow i doubt that I'm alone in this. Most recently I've been led to believe that God is telling me to stop engaging in an activity that I completely enjoy. The fact is I haven't enjoyed the activity as much lately because of the incredible lack of success I've had of late. My bad luck in this area can only be described as supernatural. Now I'm not sure I would go so far as to say that God purposely fixes things so that a person will fail at it, but I do know that when you are not following God's plan, it's like ramming into a brick wall. Well, I've hit that brick wall so hard and so often that it is impossible to believe that it is "just bad luck" or just circumstantial or coincidence. I believe it is God's voice pounding at my door and His voice has simply gotten louder.

Now, my first reaction is to be angry and resentful. What's so wrong with this activity? Why can others do it and be so successful and I have to quit it? Will I have to quit doing everything I enjoy in order to follow God's plan for my life? The only way to get past all of that is by surrendering in faith. I've taught this to alcoholics and addicts for over 15 years. Just follow the program laid out for you and even though it may feel awkward or scary at first, just do it anyway and have faith that it will work if you work it. It's certainly much easier to tell others what to do than to follow your own advice!

90% of the time when we ponder whether we should or shouldn't do something, we already know the answer. We are only struggling because our ego has some investment in one of the decisions. So we have to listen with our heart and not with our minds and the answer is so clear, though not always a comfortable one. God's way is the only way my friends. Surrender can actually bring peace and end your anxiety. Does surrender mean becoming an automaton with no ability to think? Absolutely not! God gave us a brain for a reason but there are deeper parts of our brain, more primitive parts I believe that are much more adept at communication with our Maker and far more intuitive than the brain we currently use. Our ego, which runs our thinking currently, is entirely a creation of our own and it is imperfect. The brain that God gave us, however, is perfect and if we think with it, it will lead us down the straight and narrow path that we all seek. The brain that God gave us is what we commonly call the heart or our intuition.

Intuitive thinking comes from faith, surrender and prayer. Don't ask God "What should I do?" unless you're willing to follow His answer.