Once again Jason, thank you for a great and moving piece. I am finding more and more that I need to ‘humanise’ topics before diving in and ‘theologising’ everything. Your comment about the love who have for Beverley Jane and your newborn and the demands this love placed on all aspects of your life is such a powerful and majestic truth.
That next to last paragraph- I feel that deeply. Death of self accompanies the demand of loving Jesus, for through that process of dying, new life emerges. Dying is rarely easy.
Something has to die in order to love. Our lives take their order around the thing and person we love, allowing other things to atrophy and cease out of priority. Death of self with Christ is the even deeper way of this order. And with your expertise makes me wonder how we can see death our final act of love in this life, and surrender to Christ.
Such an interesting question, which makes me also wonder if our physical death, before the fall, was but a continuous act of love and surrender, facilitating an ongoing spiritual union that led to the fullness of abiding in Christ as Christ is One with the Father?
Jason, thank you for this profound exploration of God's love for us and our response to God. Indeed, some find such love uncomfortable because they do not know what to do with it. (That probably describes most of us on a regular basis!)
We must get used to the idea that our desires - our loves - guide our choices which, when piled one on top of the other, form who we become. I love Psalm 37:4, "Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." When I first began to understand what this powerful little text means, it was earth-shifting. The more I love God, the more I desire exactly what God desires for me. Those desires from who I am becoming.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, and for reminding me of the connections to the Exercises, especially beginning prayer by gazing upon the Lord, the Lover of my soul, as he gazes upon me.
Once again Jason, thank you for a great and moving piece. I am finding more and more that I need to ‘humanise’ topics before diving in and ‘theologising’ everything. Your comment about the love who have for Beverley Jane and your newborn and the demands this love placed on all aspects of your life is such a powerful and majestic truth.
Thank you for reading and the feedback on impact on you.
That next to last paragraph- I feel that deeply. Death of self accompanies the demand of loving Jesus, for through that process of dying, new life emerges. Dying is rarely easy.
Something has to die in order to love. Our lives take their order around the thing and person we love, allowing other things to atrophy and cease out of priority. Death of self with Christ is the even deeper way of this order. And with your expertise makes me wonder how we can see death our final act of love in this life, and surrender to Christ.
Such an interesting question, which makes me also wonder if our physical death, before the fall, was but a continuous act of love and surrender, facilitating an ongoing spiritual union that led to the fullness of abiding in Christ as Christ is One with the Father?
Taking us back to the beginning… thank you Jason. Such a gift today.
As are you my friend
Jason, thank you for this profound exploration of God's love for us and our response to God. Indeed, some find such love uncomfortable because they do not know what to do with it. (That probably describes most of us on a regular basis!)
We must get used to the idea that our desires - our loves - guide our choices which, when piled one on top of the other, form who we become. I love Psalm 37:4, "Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." When I first began to understand what this powerful little text means, it was earth-shifting. The more I love God, the more I desire exactly what God desires for me. Those desires from who I am becoming.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, and for reminding me of the connections to the Exercises, especially beginning prayer by gazing upon the Lord, the Lover of my soul, as he gazes upon me.
thank you for sharing a little of the intersection with your life and these things