Kinda long, but here it goes
. I went through a dry spell with Christianity. I read, prayed, went to church and did everything that I thought I should do. I had to re-learn being a Christian from a more passive point of view. I think it was very important to learn first to be a proactive Christian (Faith without works is dead), but then I needed to learn the positive passive aspects (Be still and know that I am God). So to understand fully how He first loved me and why that was important, I really started thinking about myself as a child and how my family loved me and cared, truly cared, about the big and small things that would make me happy and be strong and healthy. Then I looked at other parents and how much love they showed their children and I really thought about this and would be still and think about God loving me this way. The child has to first receive the love to learn to give it. And then I began to see how this great Love for us was demonstrated by God sending His very own Son to sacrifice himself to bring us home to Him, His prodigal sons and daughters. And I also thought about how I would feel to deeply love and yearn for a child that had rejected me, and the lengths to which I would go to win him/her back and keep the child from danger. Thinking deeply from the perspective of a parent, then a child, then a sibling on unconditional love. How that love feels and how I see others experience it. I had to first put myself in this frame of mind to begin to really get it personally. To allow His Love for me to penetrate my mind. I could grasp the concept intellectually, but not personally.
And then I would remember these feelings when praying. Remember that a greater love than even these memories and feelings is what our Father has for us. And my heart would start breaking. I then expounded on the idea of love looking at newlyweds, as we are the bride of Christ. And what I felt when I looked into the eyes my sweetheart the protectiveness, respect, kindness, forgiveness. And thought about this innocent love that Jesus has for His church. And my heart broke some more.
And then I read the Book of Martyrs and how these saints died as little Christian soldiers giving up their lives to make sure that the message of Jesus endured. And these were some horrible, horrible deaths that these people joyfully and heroically endured. In and of themselves these saints would never have been able to do this but for the Love of God being expressed for us through them.
And then I considered the beauty of the flowers (if you can check out a series of videos called Animals that Defy Evolution). I considered our interconnectedness and how the universe itself seems to be set up to support life on Earth. I thought about how the Lord cares to put a roof over my head and food in my belly. And I started making a daily gratitude list. And then the world slowly started to become absolutely awesome. It went from b/w to techni-color for me once I really grasped the incredible, fragile, fierce, and wondrous beauty of this world created by our Father. Our actual Father created this world. Amazing. And then how even at our absolute worst, knowing the condition of each and every heart, the Lord Jesus Christ died for us anyway. That was the most beautiful realization of all for me. Slowly crept up on me. I couldnt really work for it, I had to let Him reveal it to me through loving interactions. Then I started to see Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit in others. Awesome again. And then I started to really feel the Holy Spirit within myself, which makes possible loving Him completely.
When Jesus tells us to Love one another, He means that we need to be peaceful, kind and humble.
