Sea of Love

Love is a mighty splendid thing. It is a wonderful emotion that is vital to our very existence. It is the thing that keeps us going when times get hard, it is that thing that gives us warm fuzzies inside when it happens. When we fall into that sea of love it tends to overtake all that we are, and occupies us to a whole new level. Love is that very thing we draw to when we have feeling have been hurt or someone / something has wounded our heart. Love lives within us. It is there and we chose who and when to display that love to others. Amazingly there are different kinds of love, there is the loves we have for our spouse, our children, friends, family members, church family, out priests or pastors, the teachers that our children love, or hate because they are a little tough on them to help them achieve their full potential in the classroom. Yet, we don't really think about Love that way, we know the thoughts and feeling of love, and we seem to run with it when it happens.

Yet, there is so much more to love then the simple emotion. There are the actions of love as well. That someone thinks of you often helps you when you are down because they care for you and about you. Love is there in the daycare, where you leave the children for 8 to 10 hours a day. Love is present in the nursing homes where the elderly are left and no one come to visit. The staff is there to talk to them, hold their hands, listen to their stories, and simply share life with them when they are feeling blue. Love is there in the ER when the doctors and nurses are running around to save or help the one that you love feel better, or if one passes they are there to help you grieve, bring you resource to help you deal with the death of a loved one that is unexpected, they listen, they care for you and all that has just happened. They are there because not only do they love to help others, but they are also a source of support and a listening ear when things go wrong. There is love that is happening in rehab home as those who are there are struggling to learn or relearn skills. The staff are there to rejoice with them when small steps are going right and there is an improvement, it may be a small one that is easily overlooked, but to the individual it is amazing, and staff understand that and rejoice with them.

There is love in the supermarkets, the Target stores, the Wal-Marts, Kohls and any other business that one may go to on a daily basis for work. There is a sense of family that is able to develop around you with co-workers. We start to develop friendships at work. There are people we like to talk to when things go wrong, others we can tell anything too, and some we like to shop with or go out with at the end of the night. In it all there is a friendship that forms and binds us to one another and at the center of it is Love. Love is there when we worry about a co-worker is not coming to work, and we are not sure what has happened to them. We have a bond with those individuals that tend to go a little deeper then just a person we work with, when essential we come to care and love them as a part of a extended family. We may not celebrate holidays with them but yet we care for them and worry about them if something is going wrong in their lives and all seems to be crashing down around them.

Although, at the center of all love is God. He is love, he shows us His love by dying on the cross and taking all the sins that we have ever committed or could ever conceive of committing and wipes our slate clean. He loves us with an love that there is no other love that is able to compare to it. It is a love that is always present in us, we know that God cares and loves us on a daily basis, and that there is no way we can earn that love. Rather, His love is freely give to all those who are willing to accept Him and walk with Him, talk to Him through prayer. We are able to run to Him in our times of need and never, ever will He call us needy, or childish! He is there waiting and wanting to shower us with His love is we go to Him. We are able to learn about Him through reading and worshiping Him in our homes, along with attending mass / church on Sunday morning. If we are truly lucky we are able to attend church or mass more so we are able to commune with Him on a more intimate level. By growing in God and in His Love we are able to reach out to other and show them the Love of Christ through our action, our words and by just being a Child of God in these hard times. We have the opportunity to love and be loved by the Father in Heaven, why not accept the free gift that he offers us and walk in His love daily.

Joy with God.

Have you ever wondered what stole your joy? Why is going to mass or church on Sunday morning a chore. What happened to the day that we all looked forward to going to the house of the Lord. Do you give God full attention on Sunday or do you wonder how long the sermon will be because you are so looking forward to lunch. Is there a moment that we are there with God, in His house and at that moment are we truly present in His Spirit or are we blocking God with all that we are right now.

What is hindering you from going into the fullness of God. What obstacles are in our way from really focusing on God and being in His presence. Some would say we that there is a flaw in ones character, that we are not worthy of God, but that too is a lie. We all are children of the loving heavenly Father, and we became worthy of Him the moment we accepted Christ into our lives, and became forgiven of all sins and wrongs that we have committed against God. The Father in heaven is a wonderous God, who forgives and forgets all those wrongs and sees you as a child of His that he loves dearly, We are able to go to the Father through the cross and the fact that Jesus was that perfect lamb. That love that he has for us is never ceasing but always flowing out to all of His children. We are worthy, and loved beyond what we can ever understand.

With that kind of love and forgiveness at hand, what prevents us from truly going to the Father? That is simple it is ourselves. We are the ones that feel that we are not able to commune with the heavenly Father, yet in reality He is there ready and waitng for you to take a seat at His table daily. He wants to talk to you about matters of the heart and your day, no matter how good or bad. He is there wanting to spend time with you to develop that deep friendship with you, there are no grudges or bad in your past, rather He sees you as a clean child of His because of Jesus! He is there and the joy of being with him. If we are open to Him we will be able to see and feel that joy and love of the Heavenly Father. So where did that joy go, it never left, we just decided not to part take of it. Open your eyes, and heart to the Lord and you will once again find that joy!