Falling into Love

6/7/13

While flipping through a news' magazine several nights ago, I saw the most horrific picture of a starving child in Somalia.  My eyes were glued to the picture as I tried to come to terms with the reality of this child's agony.  Earlier in the week, I gazed at the beautiful faces of child refugees as depicted by my photographer brother in Jordan.  Tonight, I cleaned feces off the entire body of a sick and dying old man. 

"Why would a loving God allow such atrocities to occur?"  This is a question that I have been asked and have pondered over for the last few years.  While I do not attest to know the perfect answer to this question, I have found an answer which allows me to rest in peace knowing that I have a loving God.  I believe that God created each human being with the purpose of loving Him and as a result loving all of those that He has created.  However, I think that when humans stray from this perfect plan, suffering results.  In knowing and unknowing defense of self, humans (myself included) have hindered the spread of love. For instance, God created enough food for the hungry in this world, but the straying of mankind from love has caused it to end up in stock piles and stores rather than in the mouths of the starving.  I was driving in town a few nights ago and was disturbed to see gas prices at $4.25/gallon, and then I thought of my full stomach, my vehicle filled with a 1/2 tank of gas, my warm bedroom, my closet and dresser filled with more clothes than I even have time to wear, and my growing bank account.  I have been given so much, and my physical self wants to cling to it.  Yet, everything within me screams for something more...

I desire what money cannot buy: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control (the fruit of the spirit).  These are satisfying to me, and I find them in overcoming life's hardships--in outpouring my blessings so that others may share in my blessings.  I am grateful for hardships in life because they provide me with opportunities to learn and grow.  They give me opportunities to share what truly matters.  Ideally, in a perfect world where every human being is following my God: Love, I do not believe there will be any more suffering or pain.  Since we have been given a choice in this world to choose love or self, there is pain because many have chosen self.  I have chosen self so many times.  I have hindered the spread of love.  My God: Love gave perfection in the form of His son, Jesus, to reconcile me--to stand in the gap for all of my shortcomings and show me the perfect example of love so that I will know how to love.  I believe this with all of my heart.  And, I believe that at the end of this life, those who have chosen Love will be given new life in a world where love abounds and there is no more suffering--no more atrocities. 

More than anything, I want to be intentional about choosing Love.  I do not want my physical desires and fears to dissuade me from Love.  I am extremely grateful for all of the physical blessings that I have been given--food, clothes, shelter, transportation, finances, etc., but I am willing to give them all up to fall more into Love.