Sparkles of Hope and Joy
Between my task orientation, my hyper-responsibility, my proclivity for harsh judgment, my vanity and my arrogance, I have a hard time with love. Let me make that more specific. I have a hard time loving the individual human beings I encounter each day.
That's pretty sad considering the only reason for sucking air in and out each day is to love. Anything else we think is important, our work, that big business deal, the big game, the new house, the make-over, our families, are really only opportunities for love and have no importance aside from that. It doesn't matter how many millions or billions of dollars closed on that big deal or if we won the Super Bowl. If it was done in greed, selfishness or conquest, it took us a step closer to death and would be better if it did not happen. If it was done in love and service, it took us a step closer to life. If we think neither love nor selfishness was involved and it was just a business deal or a game, we are deceiving ourselves. We do everything either for self or for love; they are the only two ends in life. One is life; the other is death. One is Heaven; the other is Hell.
So loving that person who stands before me, who drives in front of me, who walks beside me, is the most important thing I will do each day and I do it very poorly. Various people have used different techniques for helping them love each human being they encounter. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta would try to see the disfigured face of Jesus in every human being no matter how difficult they were. Alas, as much as I try, this hasn't worked well for me. I ask her regularly to pray for me to help me be more like her in this way.
Recently, I've started doing something that has helped a bit. I try to envision each person's creation. On the day God fashioned a soul to be joined to their body, they were a willful act of God's love. God rejoiced because John or Mary or Bob or Chris was now in the world. There was a sparkle of joy in His eye and a ray of hope that this one would be a good one, one who would add more love than self to the world. Each of us was made for life, not death. When each will come to life, I do not know (see the "Why Me?" blog) but I do know we were made for Heaven and not Hell.
Each of us is because God wanted us to be - we weren't an accident. He wanted us to be for two reasons - to love us - we are the object of His love - and to share with us the joy of loving in return. It is all about love. We were made in love and to be loved and we are loved - we have been all along. That is our peace.
So, when I encounter each person, no matter how good or depraved or how busy I am, I try to see that sparkle of joy in God's eye as that person was created. God's hope for them remains no matter how awful a person they seem to be. It is waiting there no matter what terrible deeds they have done or what horrible thoughts they have thought, ready to spring to life when the person awakens to the hope baked right into their soul.
Of course, the problem usually isn't the other person and they are usually better people than I. I am usually the problem. I'm too busy doing some seemingly important thing that is really completely unimportant except for how I love in the moment. So, now I try to stop, look at the person no matter what I am doing, see that moment of joy and hope when God willed them into being and then love them. That's what that moment was made for. To use it any other way, is a waste of breath.
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