Monday, April 7, 2014

Worthy

Our human minds do the spiritual math and add up our accomplishments, skills, talents, or at least the wrongs not done in an attempt to make ourselves worthy of the prize - eternal life in paradise, the paradise we gave up because we wanted more than all that had been freely given us.

None of what we had in Eden was earned by us or deserved. It was all a gift. But when it was pointed out that one gift was withheld, we reached out to take it so as to make the spiritual equation come out equal, as if that would make us whole and right, when we were already right with God. Indeed it was that act of taking that which was withheld which actually put things out of balance and the Creator had to put into action the plan to make things right again.

Yet, we still miss it. Now, we just as often go to the other extreme - we think our sin makes us unworthy of fulfilling God's purpose for us - to love God and to love others. We insist on waiting until we are worthy - thinner, more successful, kinder. We think we are protecting God and others from our unworthiness, our sinfulness. Just as Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden, we seek to hide from our purpose to simply love God and love others. It is a self protective measure to keep us from being emptied of our love and to receive nothing in return.

But when we focus on His grace and revel in His assessment that we are worthy because He made us,then we receive the measure that makes the equation balance, makes us whole. His grace plus our gratitude equals love flowing.

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