Beware of believing that the human soul is simple, or that human life is simple. Our relationship to God in Christ is the only simple thing there is. If the devil succeeds in making this relationship complicated, then the human soul and human life will appear to be simple; whereas in reality they are far too complex for us to touch.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.~ Jesus, The Love that made the worlds, in John 15
Oh surely it is true beloved, relationship is the final stuff of reality. This writer sat in a room in the mountains of Switzerland one day two decades ago and heard a wise teacher say these words. They bear repeating: Relationship is the final stuff of reality.
Everything about us, firstly, has to do with our relationship to the One who is the very embodiment of relationship within the Trinity. And everything else about us is about our relationship to each other.
We were made – even Designed – to live in intimate communion with our Creator and to breath Him as our very breath.
We were then enabled – even Empowered – to Live lives that simply pour out the essence of this communion (read Love) on other people.
And relationships work best when all the members involved are running as they were Designed to run. But we must always remember a foundational truth.
Some people are not ready to live a Life plugged into a wholly Holy power Source. Some people would still rather live in the paradigm that they need to get their love from other people to be happy – or that they can find life and love within themselves – or from some substance or activity.
And so, relationships always go as slow as the slowest member of the relationship.
Thank G_d that this is true!
What?
Yeah, ’cause we all do this, all the time. We try to get life from something else than the very Source of Life – and this Great Lover of our souls is simply patient with us. His Lovingkindness continues new every day. His Love for us simply goes on and on and on and on and on and on…
Might this not apply to how we live out our own lives? What if someone does not, or can not, or simply will not love us back when we truly love them? The basis of the word ‘lovingkindness’ is mercy, which implies that the love we give has no foundation in the merit of the individual we are loving.
Said simply: Love one another. Loving people has nothing to do with the quantity or quality of their loving us back.
Let’s not monkey around with love. Let’s just live in His Love, and pour it out on others. The pace and speed of all our relationships will most work themselves together for good.
