Recent Musings:
A God of reason.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Lately, I've been attempting a different approach in the way I relate with others, based on a biblical principle. Some people may be familiar with the quote, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." My revelation came into play when I simply asked, how do I do that?
The first struggle is loving the Lord entirely. Not easy to do and maybe not even attainable in the sinful state of humanity. I like the concept, however, of finding a way to show that I love God and his principles with all my heart and soul and mind and strength throughout each day; I try to find ways to put His teachings as a first priority in my life.
I was taught once that God is a God of reason and I've come to recognize it. If you look to nature as an example, the consistent patterns of the sunrises and sunsets, the pull of the moon on the ocean's tides, the hibernation of animals in winter and the way their bodies interpret the seasons, I can see the proof that God created all things to be in balance. As I try to apply the principle of love God, love me, love neighbor in my life, I try to instill balance and reason in my life; I try to show that I believe God makes sense and that the way he created things to be makes sense too.
Applying that thought process to the tricky aspect of loving your neighbor as yourself, I excitedly realized another thing: ding ding ding! I have to love myself first, before I can love my neighbor! My interpretation is that I have to fully embrace myself - my flaws, my skills, my thoughts, my contributions - before I can do so for my neighbor, mostly because I need to treat my neighbor as I treat myself. To further this interpretation, if I start treating my neighbor better than I treat myself, the ideal hope for balance becomes imbalanced and I will start to suffer from my lack of care for myself, whether this be through anger or depression or mismanaged time or indifference. The list can go on.
Really, I haven't got this down yet and I haven't found a remedy to make it "an easy 1-2-3 steps a day." In fact, I slip up quite quickly and forget the "love myself" part, which leaves me skittish and defensive and stressed. I do strive toward these principles daily and hope that the reasoning of God will manifest itself in my life.