"I ask for the desire to pray and meditate regularly. I ask for patience, gentleness, tolerance, compassion, and empathy. I ask to abstain from anger, anxiety, shame, discouragement, and compulsive behaviour. I ask to know Jesus more intimately, love him more fully, and follow him more closely. I ask to experience myself and others as Jesus experiences us, as made in the image and likeness of God. Today I am deeply grateful for receiving what I asked for and needed yesterday."
1 John 4:7-11
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
1) "love one another;" "...love is from God;" "...God is love;" "...so that we might live through him;" "...he loved us;" "...love one another;" "Beloved;" "...let us love one another;"
2) I want to react, "Blah, blah, blah" so many words about love, but what does it mean in the waking world? We say "love" but what does that look like? When is the love "tough" and when is it "kind"? Which actions are "loving" and which "enabling"? How do I love without affirming behaviour that alienates and harms? I know it is possible, but it is so hard. It is easier to hate the person with the action/behaviour or to simply lose sight of the love beyond the annoyance. Some days I love. Some days I want to love. Some days I want to want to want... and some days I don't want to love, my heart is simply hardened through fatigue, fear, frustration... There are simply people, and times, I don't want to love. I have no heart for it. That saddens and shames me.
3) What is the invitation in the midst of this? I hear a call to humility in the face of a love I'm not sure I can bear, knowing I am not always capable. I hear a call to trust that despite my inability to love, and my unloveability, I am still loved. To see today if I can muster some sense of genuine compassion and empathy for someone who angers me.
"Holy One, soften and expand my heart."
Breathprayer: "Beloved... let us love one another."
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