We are united by Love

Many of us have turned to attack one another as we react to fear. A fear we would not have if Love were the master of our lives.

We have to be very careful at all times, but these times are particularly treacherous. There are many trials we are facing, but the main one is our ability to love one another.

When so many people start preaching violence, neglect and exclusion as means to do what is good or build a peaceful community, the darkness of this world is in full effect.

We don’t pick sides, but we must take a stand. Love is our stand.

We are not called to be silent and live in a spiritual cave, but to use every opportunity to be agents of peace.

We are not loving one another by keeping silent to avoid conflict, when our hearts feel strongly against what is being said or done. We can, and should, show our love by speaking peacefully and firmly as we assert our values founded on Love.

We are not called to oppress, but to speak up for Love, forgiveness, compassion, peace – and this not at the expense of others.

We don’t have to speak against anything or anyone. Let’s raise our voices to speak only about the Love that can unite us and not join any other conversation that is focused on dividing us.

Intellectual debate won’t make us wiser. Love will.

Most of my life I was known as an intellectual. I still am an intellectual. But intellect never brought me balance.

No amount of knowledge ever made me peaceful. I enjoyed being acknowledged for my intellect, but there was always debate going on about everything. And there was no truth, only competing perspectives.

One of the most fundamental changes that I’ve experienced after my conversion was a progressive detachment from this obsessive compulsive disorder we all suffer from called debate.

Most of the time, wherever there is a need for debate, love is lacking. On the other hand, wherever love is abundant, there is no need or incentive for debate.

I never feel like debating – I’ve learned to either keep quiet or vocally refuse to join. Having a background in journalism and a history of winning over debates, this is a radical change – and a wonderful one that’s brought peace to my interactions with people.

Nonetheless I am genuinely interested in the well being of those around me, so here is one strategy that I find more meaningful and efficient to produce change both in and around me:

– If I disagree with something that is being said or done, instead of debating it, I focus on acting in a way such that reflects my vision as opposed to investing in showcasing my perspective to either convince (win) or accept (lose) against someone else’s perspective.

There’s nothing more powerful than actions. So why spend so much valuable energy on debate? The world and particularly the Internet is already full of it – and there is a profound lack of love in it.

When we’re lead by love, we learn how to transcend the dynamics of this world to shield ourselves from all its nonsensical behavior.

Love casts out all fear

The fear of a life with an unknown expiry date is soul crushing. Yet this isn’t the life we are called to live. We drown in fear because we don’t live in Love.

Our calling is to live in Love, and powerfully overcome death as we walk towards eternity.

Love keeps us strong. Even when everything and everyone around us collapses, we stand in peace and filled with hope.

When this divine Love inhabits us, we get a taste of the eternity it comes from and leads us to.

There is no medicine for our fear in this world. If we want to be healed of living in fear, we need to want this Love.

Because only Love casts out all fear.

Enjoying the freedom of being forgiven

There is a freedom we can only enjoy when we know we are forgiven. It gives us peace to live life as we can, based on the conscience we have, and not as others think that we should.

Being forgiven humbles our hearts.

But we still need to be watchful of different people who will come around trying to question this freedom.

Remember, “church” is not a group or a place. It is a spiritual dimension filled with love, not judgement.

Let the One who called you guide your heart with his peace. And enjoy the forgiven life of freedom he gave you.

We are Love’s poem

We are a work of art, forged by eternal Love. Our design is meant to express our maker’s wisdom. Since our maker’s essence is Love, we too are expressions of his loving ways.

When we choose to connect with Love, our essence and maker, we are free to enjoy a peaceful life in this world, regardless of circumstances. He makes his home in us and we share his power to love and forgive everyone.

When we choose to connect with the systems of this world, we allow our peace, joy and love to become dependant on our circumstances.

It’s a choice we make, and we are free to make it. But each of us has a particular timing that only he knows.

We are free from everything and everyone that tries to become an obstacle between us and his eternal Love.

And we need to be careful not to allow people to tell us how we are supposed to live.

We can’t live a genuinely free spiritual life when we judge, single out others and live in a bubble of self-righteousness.

When we connect with Love, we live under grace, knowing we can do no good without it operating in our hearts.

Let this divine grace lead your heart, not people.

It is when we allow our maker to bring us into a full expression of his love poem that we become salt of the earth, powerfully able to love one another for his good works.

The freedom of Love

God is not forbidding us from doing things. On the contrary, he gives us the free will to make our own decisions.

Similarly in politics, a politician can be a follower of Jesus and yet give others the possibility of making decisions that are not aligned with his/her personal convictions.

I know a wonderful woman in politics who is exactly like this. I voted for her with my heart filled with hope and love.

It’s called free will. All else is judgment.

We have the freedom that God, who is Love, gives us. We aren’t called to advocate against each other’s freedom.

It is God’s love that is in control. Always.

We give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. And to God what is God’s.

Loving one another outside the box of religion

Living in the spirit is about putting Love first in our lives. It’s about being inclusive and merciful instead of judgmental.

After spending most of my life as an atheist, I have found Christian groups to display the least welcoming and most judgmental behavior I’ve experienced in life.

I have visited, joined and frequented a lot of different Christian groups and have found that they live in bubbles. It is difficult to make friends with them, because of how “concerned” they are about not living in the world and how much they avoid it.

I have found it quite difficult, as someone who breaths God’s grace everyday and who knows his love is not selective, to become close with Christians. Their tendency to single out people who do not correspond to their ways breaks my heart.

Yet God is love and he loves all of us. He calls and saves whoever he wants, however and whenever he wants.

When I experienced a conversion 7 years ago, I was alone and no one preached to me. God puts his word, which is the expression of his eternal love and almighty power, in people’s hearts however he wants. Including people who haven’t heard of Jesus.

The transformation that he operates in our lives is unique to each of us and entirely up to his will.

It is wonderful to read the word and experience the joy and peace that it gives as God reveals more and more of himself to us personally. However there is a lot of interference in this beautiful and powerful relationship coming from people in religion – even those from non-denominational groups.

Last year was decisive for me to move on from a number of such groups I had “trialed”.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.

Matthew

If you have tried finding community in the “Christian world” and felt they were never going to let you in, don’t be discouraged. That’s likely not the place where God has called you to be.

Remember: God’s will is for us to love one another.

And there is a whole world out there where we can meet and, regardless of our differences, be inclusive as Jesus was. He is the incarnation of God’s perfect love and infinite mercy.

A fresh start with Love

On January 5th I celebrated 7 years since my conversion. It feels like I’ve lived hundreds of years, yet I feel so rejuvenated because everyday is a fresh start when Love is our master.

I’m taking the opportunity to share a bit of my story again today. I know it encourages believers and non-believers alike.

When I was an atheist, two psychologists helped me navigate and cope with a series of life events that crushed me. But they never healed me. 

To say that I was hanging by a thread would be an understatement. And although I have a lot of appreciation for deeply humane and loving psychologists like the ones who helped me, there’s only so much they can do. 

I couldn’t imagine myself going one week without therapy. At that point I felt emotionally crippled. My life was a full-time burden.

That’s when I did the unimaginable. One night I surrendered and asked God for help. Being an atheist, I had no idea what I was doing. But I had a crushed, humble heart as I called him. And God listened.

God healed overnight what two different psychologists couldn’t heal in years.

For the first time in my life I knew that there was one who loved me just the way I always wanted to be loved. And his divine love set me free.

God’s love worked in me to forgive others who had been the root cause of a lot of emotional turmoil in my life. And he also taught me to forgive myself.

Without God’s love, I could never have healed. 

It is his divine and eternal love in me that makes it possible to forgive everyone and the world everyday, regardless of merit. And heal.

Mercy always triumphs over judgment

When we see others acting in ways that don’t align with our conscience in Christ, we are called to be merciful.

We were forgiven by a merciful God who carried our sins on the cross and set us free to live a spiritual life filled with his love.

The world might judge and condemn, but we live under the power of grace. We speak up for mercy, forgiveness and love for everyone being crushed by the destructive systems of this world.

We must not keep silent when others are being crushed. Indignation has its place as long as we don’t lose our minds and become hostile, giving way to expressions of evil.

When it is necessary to confront others to assert our values, we must do so with calm and loving words.

We should pray with a hopeful spirit and ask that the One who made us converts the perpetrators of hatred and the ones being affected by it into expressions of his love.

His mercy always triumphs over judgment.

And when we allow him to make his home in us, and seek him first, his mercy triumphs over our judgment.

Without him, we would be agents of destruction. With him, we are agents of his peace and cooperators for his loving word.

We become stronger when we stop defending ourselves

I grew up being told to defend myself. You probably did too.

And I have to admit it: my instincts used to tell me the exact same. Sometimes they still do. But I know now that the best defence that I can ever get is not my own, or anyone else’s.

It is the wise, timeless and powerful defence from the One who is the master of everything we see (and cannot see).

Relying on God to do the weight lifting takes confidence in his love, trust in his ways and faith in his power to transform us.

We become stronger when we stop defending ourselves and let God defend us instead. While we might fail, he always succeeds and does exactly what needs to be done to deliver us from our oppressors and bring peace to our lives.

Relying on God to defend us is a daily exercise.

But his strength becomes our strength when we let him take over from us. All we have to do is step back and watch his love at play making the impossible possible in every aspect of our lives.