Last night at sol cafe our conversation veered around the curve of love and trust in the Christian church. We sometimes have great difficulty telling the truth about who we are and how we are doing to our fellow Christians. We need to present ourselves as at least moderately good, but without claiming for ourselves an extravagant sainthood of piety.
Where is this going? Well, the church needs to be an encouraging community. We all realize that each of our lives contains troubles, sorrows and failures. We need God to grant us love and trust if we are grow into what we believe Jesus is calling the church to be, We are open about our faults with those whom we trust and those whom we love, and more importantly, with those who love us. We are not so open when we do not believe we are loved.
We have that freedom because such freedom is the fruit of love. I can share my failings with one who loves me - simply because I know that I am loved. This is true in our human relationships, and true in our relationship with God. The more I sense that I too am "beloved", the more honestly I can bring to God the sore spots in my soul, in my character, in my life. For I know that His response is forgiveness, healing, and encouragement.
It is this freedom which is found in being "beloved" by God...
[Stray thought for later: We have somewhat lost the art of forgiveness. We tend to reduce it to uncomfortable silence followed by "that's okay...". There is a huge difference between saying "that's okay" and "I forgive you."]
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