Greetings Dear Reader,
I am continuing on the theme of gratitude and giving in my
thinking about the approach of Thanksgiving.
I am learning a great deal about how it impacts others when we do not
forgive and seek peace with each other. It
comes down to the question of who we deem worthy of our love.
Imagine with me how it would feel if I said to you, “I love
you but you are unworthy of me showing you that love.” I could say it like this, “Oh I love him/her,
but he/she is just too much for me right now.
His/her issues are too stressful for me.” Now imagine how that would feel if people you
love at the deepest part of your capacity to love did that to you. Imagine if the Father did that to you.
The requirement from the Father is NOT, “Do unto others as they
have done to you or have done to others.”
It is, “Do unto others as you would have done to you.” It is “Love your neighbor, love the stranger
in your land, love your enemies.” I am
guilty at failing in this with a person for years. Then those that I love followed my poor
example.
It becomes clear to me that we do not understand why we are
to constantly seek to restore others in love.
It is also clear to me that we must.
The person with whom I must do this does damage to me every time we talk. That does not mean that I can quit. It means that I must count on the Father to
work in both of us to make things right.
Others have seen the toll that it takes on me and advised me to give up
on this person. I tried. It is a failure.
What if the Father treated us this way? Are we not forgiven as we forgive? We cannot simply give lip service to forgiveness. Jesus knows what it is like to be abandoned
and betrayed by those dearest to him. Worse,
he endured it without having wronged them in any way. I cannot claim to be following Christ and
treat anyone as his followers treated him.
We live in a society where it is acceptable to abandon our children,
hate our enemies, and ghost people when we are angry or hurt. Those are all lies and I believed it in some
measure for a time. It is not up to me
who is deserving of active evidence of my love.
Everyone is. I must show my love
to everyone no matter what it costs me.
I am required to live peaceably with all humans. I am obligated to actively pursue restoration
of every broken relationship to one of love and harmony in Christ. Since I have made this transition I have had
to actively seek out some people I have wronged and seek their forgiveness. It is hard and painful but it is also
peaceful and restorative. I am not
trying to ease a conscience. I am trying
to be obedient. There are still people I
love who refuse to speak to me. I cannot
control that. I cannot be responsible
for the choice they make. What I can do
is love them fiercely and never close the door to restoration. I can remember that we promised to never stop
showing love to each other no matter the cost. What I can do is keep hammering away at my
pride and pain.
What I must do is never see anyone as a ghost or someone to be
rejected for any reason. I have heard
the silence of God and would not with that pain on anyone if I am meant to be
the voice of his love in their lives. We
erect walls of silence to protect ourselves from pain when we are meant to take
up the cross and let the Father comfort our pain. Unlike his true Son, he never forsakes the
adopted ones.
The
Silence of God – Michael Card
It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith
It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane
When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod
And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God
It'll shake a man's timbers when he loses his heart
When he has to remember what broke him apart
This yoke may be easy, but this burden is not
When the crying fields are frozen by the silence of God
But when you have to listen to the voices of the mob
Who are reeling in the throes of all the happiness they've
got
When they tell you all their troubles have been nailed up to
that cross
Then what about the times when even followers get lost?
'Cause we all get lost sometimes...
There's a statue of Jesus on a monastery knoll
In the hills of Kentucky, all quiet and cold
He's kneeling in the garden, as silent as a stone
All His friends are sleeping and He's weeping all alone
And the man of all sorrows, he never forgot
What sorrow is carried by the hearts that he bought
So, when the questions dissolve into the silence of God
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
The aching may remain, but the breaking does not
In the holy, lonesome echo of the silence of God
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer
who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home
owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
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