God spoke with authority. I felt I should be living in accord with His will, but daily distractions tended to crowd God out. I had to remind myself to check in. One morning, I remembered to ask, “Lord, do You have any instructions for me today?”
Behave lovingly toward others.
“What is love?”
Love is the openness of the heart, the soul, to the needs and hearts of others. It moves toward a union with them and a healing. It restores the fractured unity of the souls of those who love and those who are loved alike.
That made sense and, a few days later, while I was hurrying through the Washington crowds to get to a meeting, I heard,
Listen!
I stopped to listen and was told,
Love has opened the door—now step through it.
What could that mean?
________
Listen to this on God: An Autobiography, The Podcast– the dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.
He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.
ray wheaton January 10, 2013
I am sorry to say that I have no idea what love is ..I don’t love anyone, I am sorry to say, and I don’t think anyone loves me…there are a few people I like, our children, my wife and a few others, but that is it…I am sure some people like me…I have always said that I don’t envy anyone, but I do envy your ability to love.
Jerry L Martin January 14, 2013
Ray, thank you for sharing this cry from the heart. You are not the only person for whom love is a challenge; we all know that feeling. The heart of the problem is “I don’t think anyone loves me.” The problem yields its own answer, but it is not an easy answer. You — anybody — can’t love unless you are loved — and know and feel loved. The real sin is not loving yourself. That prevents you from loving others. Loving yourself is easier said than done. If you do not feel loved, you think you are unlovable. God’s love, even more concretely a wife’s love, to the extent you can take those in can be helpful here. Even then, you — anybody — may still not feel lovable because of something far back and perhaps subterranean in childhood. In the book, I report my own challenge stemming from my mother’s emotional unavailability for many years after my baby brother died. Let me say one other thing. It is sometimes good not to aspire to Love everybody with a capital L or for them to Love you in some ultimate way. There are others you like and respect and feel kindness toward. And they like and respect and feel kindness toward you. Isn’t that enough to ask of a human being?