chrisVT2003
Member
- Mar 5, 2013
- 1
- 0
It’s hard to imagine this kind of thing called “god’s loveâ€, or even the viewpoint permitting us an understanding of this thing called “unconditional loveâ€. The very term implies an infinite amount of something that we can somehow measure. It’s like being told by your science teacher about the universe for the first time and trying to wrap your head around the things the teacher tells you. Did you know that the sun is just one in hundreds of billions of stars circling a black hole that is so massive that the stars (including our sun) circle it like the planets have to circle a star. Wait a minute. So as big as we think our planet is, and as big as we think our star (the sun) is, you’re telling me there’s hundreds of BILLIONS more stars that each have their own separate solar system containing new and different planets??? Wow. That’s so big. A galaxy is so unfathomably large that no person could even come close to understanding its scope. But that’s not the end of the story; not by a long shot. You see, there might be at least 100 billion galaxies, based on what has been observed to date according to the major scientific journals—but a quick search in Google will give you this answer if you’re unconvinced.
These billions of galaxies (although that’s all we’ve seen so far, there’s way more)with their infinite stars and planets are much like the concept of understanding the kind of love that would be unconditional, complete, healing, compassionate, completely forgiving, fulfilling, honest, kind, sacrificial…..you get the point! Love isn’t an easily defined term on its own. Most of us here, in the flesh, just struggle to find the true meaning of love. We are sure that it exists but have no way of knowing when it’s real. Love is like a galaxy! Remember how blown away you were about the idea that there could be hundreds of billions of stars with their own planets? What should love feel like and how should I give it? Seems like a question you would never be able to answer and know for sure that your answer is absolute. A galaxy is as confusing to our brains as the concept of love.
Unconditional love is to love : what the Universe is to a galaxy.
We couldn’t comprehend how something as large as a galaxy could literally be just a speck of dust in the grand scheme of the known Universe. So what makes anyone believe they could know what unconditional love truly means, how it feels, or how to practice it? People use the term lightly and many have even said they knew what it meant. A good example is a dog’s purported ‘unconditional love’ for their owner, no matter what. This would be a poor estimation of the vastness of the “universe†that is: unconditional love. A dog cannot heal you from addiction, nor can the dog teach you so that you can grow, nor can the dog supply you with all things that you will need, nor can a dog’s love for you make you so happy that the only thing you want to do is your dog’s will…..I can go on but the point is made. A dog may be able to love —but then the dog is only a hypothetical galaxy from the examples above. These examples of the dog’s inability to love unconditionally are just the things I can imagine. But imagination is no more equipped to conceptualize a Universe than it is the true meaning of unconditional love. Yea, that means love goes way deeper, and is as complicated as, any concept of love we have imaginable.
The Universe is so immense that when we think about ourselves the first thought should be, “wow, look how insignificant or small I am!†As common as this thought would be in considering the Universe, another thought may be even more common. The common perception we have is of the immense power and undeniable existence of something greater than ourselves—many call it God—but even the most hardened skeptics can’t escape the subconscious and direct impression one gets every time they really attempt to comprehend the vastness of infinity. The same can be said of the word “eternityâ€. This term can also be used in a sentence that further complicates the definition of eternity when used to say “eternities†(plural). Who can say they know how to measure the eternities, past and present? I would venture to say few if any would even attempt to do so. But something else is relevant to these thoughts about the vastness of the Universe; or conversely, the smallness of our self.
Even though we seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, when the thought arrives that reminds us of the possibility that a God made all of the Universe—as is commonly perceived in this line of thinking—we are somehow less tiny than the Universe claims. The very existence of this God makes us not a speck of dirt in a large universe, but rather something special to be treasured. We are told later on by religion, the bible or other religious doctrines, that we are unconditionally loved by that God…but what words could ever truly allow us to comprehend what the meaning of unconditional love is?
Many times, we worry that God will punish us as our parents or guardians did when we misbehaved as a child. We fear that if God really existed he would make things better, preventing feeling the pain you are going through rather than experiencing it. The very notion of pain and God existing in the same Universe makes us weary of what kind of God we actually have. Other times, you fear that God will force you to be a saint, like Mother Theresa, if you chose to accept him; you also worry that if you chose to turn to him that he would turn away—rejecting the only chance you have for a relationship with Him because of your bad traits; you also worry on, and on, and on, and on— but you haven’t given yourself—OR GOD— any credit through any of this worrying
God does love you unconditionally. It is true. I don’t speak as a religious expert, nor do I speak from some vision given to me as if I were a prophet. I do speak from what I know of Him in my daily life and from the word given us by God in every major religion’s texts. Unconditional love is how his love is described for us. You and I have no idea what that means, and its ok. You and I were not meant to understand fully here in the flesh, just as we cannot fully comprehend the size and scope of the Universe. Just because we don’t understand these things, doesn’t mean they don’t exist or cannot exist! How foolish we would be to say that the Universe doesn’t truly exist. Also equally as foolish would be to say that unconditional love isn’t possible because we haven’t comprehended it yet. Just because we cannot fully comprehend the idea of these infinitely large things doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore their realities for us in our lives.
We are made to constantly explore, expand horizons, ask questions, seek the truth, investigate a mystery and to feel this emotion we call love. The hardest thing for us to do, and something that is not innately ingrained in us, is the ability to have faith.
- Faith that unconditional love exists.
- Faith that for such a thing to exist, it must exist in God.
- Faith that infinity is not a fictitious concept and actually exists both physically (as exampled by the Universe) and spiritually (the concept of human consciousness and self-awareness is regularly accepted as fact and is just as “magical†as anything else we’ve talked about).
Everything makes sense with faith and truth. Truth is knowledge and faith is the ability for knowledge’s expansion past the ability for us to receive all truth. If God doesn’t exist, than none of this matters one bit and will never make sense. But, if God exists, and he does love us in ways that we may even not be able to understand, than why not try to ask Him for some sort of sign that he does in fact love you so much that anything you ask, in reason and along with your best interests in mind, will be granted.
So what should we do? Just talk to Him as if he were your closest friend, remembering that he also is your supreme leader in all things with the authority to deny or grant your every wish. How would you treat someone with this authority yet familiarity if you knew someone like that? It’s tough, but just talk as if you are having a long distance phone call. This is the essence of prayer. It isn’t any tricker than my description. It also gives you the chance to: (a) Vent, (b) ask, (c) question, (d) celebrate, (e) praise, (f) ask for healing, (g) ask for help on behalf of another, (h) just have a conversation with no specific point.
-
Open your heart to the possibility. Forget every negative image, thought, feeling, concept, fear, or belief you have about the possibility of God’s existence. This may take a while, but don’t wait to ask Him these questions until you are ready. You’ll never be ready if you intellectually speculate about the time you’ll feel ready. Unfortunately, the world is never going to give you the answers you need to feel ready. The reason is simple: God’s love for us included the ability for each individual to freely choose how they will act or not act. This is called free will. It’s a gift that comes with consequences for bad actions, and benefits for good acts. These consequences are found right here on Earth; I am not referring to consequences of our soul’s final resting place. Forget that stuff for now and just look at the consequences here on earth. Every action seems to have an equally powerful result. Call it Karma, the Ying and the Yang, or reaping what you sow—every major religion has something to say about the resulting effect of our choices. Free will is a learning tool designed to get us to do right rather than wrong. To love rather than to fear or hate. To be kind rather than selfish. To be honest, rather than untrue. We know this because every time we do something that is negative, a negative result follows that affects us. Sure, that cash we stole from a person’s wallet helped pay for a new computer. But then, we somehow lose that same amount of cash we took out of the wallet to some unseen force. Whether a bill was more than it should have been; or we were pulled over and got a speeding ticket that we couldn’t have foreseen; or maybe the computer we buy crashes from a virus that makes it unusable until we invest in the necessary repairs…. The examples are numerous but you get my point.
So, the gift of free will is more like a tool to get us to be better people. When we keep choosing to do wrong over and over, our lives are filled with disappointment, frustration and hurt. When we chose to believe that the Karma thing is actually true, we start changing out behavior and become more happy. That’s how free will effects our personal choices, but unfortunately it can also change our ability to trust. That’s because other people have the complete right of free will just as you do, and sometimes other people choose to do wrong things to you. This creates in us a defense mechanism, and the walls go up to protect us. These walls prevent us in fully trusting someone. Other times, people use their free will to gain power and control over others. In this way, people have corrupted God’s message to us in order for them to gain power and control of others who trust these “religious leadersâ€. For example, the fear of going to hell motivated many medieval Christians because most couldn’t read the bible and were completely dependent on the teachings of the church for God’s message. The church became money and power hungry with this amount of power. Each individual priest or Christian leader had the ability to choose right or wrong, and many chose wrong. They did this because their lives seemed better with limitless money and power over the people you were responsible for preaching to.
They took the message of truth, faith, and love and replaced those ideals for their own selfish purposes, as a child might take a toy from a sibling. These same people were corrupt with power, comfort, and fear of losing all they thought they had. No big deal, they’re sinners as we all are. But why would you believe a corrupt and greedy human being when he tells you something about God? The first reaction most of us have is that because these bad people say these things about God, God must not exist—or if he does, he wasn’t too nice. Is that what inspired this anger, hatred or fear you have against God? Its ok! We all do it! This is the point where you throw that garbage out now. Think about the vastness of space. Sit quietly and think about the meaning of infinity. Then, compare that thought to God and see what happens. Almost instinctually, there seems to be a logical truth that God must exist.
If you really care to learn the truth, ask Him and you will be given the truth in some way that is perfect for your stage of spiritual development. There are very few coincidences in life, so before you brush off one of God’s answers to your questions as “merely a coincidence that couldn’t have been a sign from God†or “just a freak event that happened to coincide with your question to Godâ€, consider it as a real answer from Him and you’ll get it! You will feel love; don’t be afraid. I truly mean this when I tell you that love is healing. If you want to finally know what love feels like, then really think about this message and ask god to reveal himself to you with all truth and honesty in your heart and a miracle will happen.
Faith first. Love follows. Then, truth will be revealed in the eternities. Good luck and God bless!
These billions of galaxies (although that’s all we’ve seen so far, there’s way more)with their infinite stars and planets are much like the concept of understanding the kind of love that would be unconditional, complete, healing, compassionate, completely forgiving, fulfilling, honest, kind, sacrificial…..you get the point! Love isn’t an easily defined term on its own. Most of us here, in the flesh, just struggle to find the true meaning of love. We are sure that it exists but have no way of knowing when it’s real. Love is like a galaxy! Remember how blown away you were about the idea that there could be hundreds of billions of stars with their own planets? What should love feel like and how should I give it? Seems like a question you would never be able to answer and know for sure that your answer is absolute. A galaxy is as confusing to our brains as the concept of love.
Unconditional love is to love : what the Universe is to a galaxy.
We couldn’t comprehend how something as large as a galaxy could literally be just a speck of dust in the grand scheme of the known Universe. So what makes anyone believe they could know what unconditional love truly means, how it feels, or how to practice it? People use the term lightly and many have even said they knew what it meant. A good example is a dog’s purported ‘unconditional love’ for their owner, no matter what. This would be a poor estimation of the vastness of the “universe†that is: unconditional love. A dog cannot heal you from addiction, nor can the dog teach you so that you can grow, nor can the dog supply you with all things that you will need, nor can a dog’s love for you make you so happy that the only thing you want to do is your dog’s will…..I can go on but the point is made. A dog may be able to love —but then the dog is only a hypothetical galaxy from the examples above. These examples of the dog’s inability to love unconditionally are just the things I can imagine. But imagination is no more equipped to conceptualize a Universe than it is the true meaning of unconditional love. Yea, that means love goes way deeper, and is as complicated as, any concept of love we have imaginable.
The Universe is so immense that when we think about ourselves the first thought should be, “wow, look how insignificant or small I am!†As common as this thought would be in considering the Universe, another thought may be even more common. The common perception we have is of the immense power and undeniable existence of something greater than ourselves—many call it God—but even the most hardened skeptics can’t escape the subconscious and direct impression one gets every time they really attempt to comprehend the vastness of infinity. The same can be said of the word “eternityâ€. This term can also be used in a sentence that further complicates the definition of eternity when used to say “eternities†(plural). Who can say they know how to measure the eternities, past and present? I would venture to say few if any would even attempt to do so. But something else is relevant to these thoughts about the vastness of the Universe; or conversely, the smallness of our self.
Even though we seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, when the thought arrives that reminds us of the possibility that a God made all of the Universe—as is commonly perceived in this line of thinking—we are somehow less tiny than the Universe claims. The very existence of this God makes us not a speck of dirt in a large universe, but rather something special to be treasured. We are told later on by religion, the bible or other religious doctrines, that we are unconditionally loved by that God…but what words could ever truly allow us to comprehend what the meaning of unconditional love is?
Many times, we worry that God will punish us as our parents or guardians did when we misbehaved as a child. We fear that if God really existed he would make things better, preventing feeling the pain you are going through rather than experiencing it. The very notion of pain and God existing in the same Universe makes us weary of what kind of God we actually have. Other times, you fear that God will force you to be a saint, like Mother Theresa, if you chose to accept him; you also worry that if you chose to turn to him that he would turn away—rejecting the only chance you have for a relationship with Him because of your bad traits; you also worry on, and on, and on, and on— but you haven’t given yourself—OR GOD— any credit through any of this worrying
God does love you unconditionally. It is true. I don’t speak as a religious expert, nor do I speak from some vision given to me as if I were a prophet. I do speak from what I know of Him in my daily life and from the word given us by God in every major religion’s texts. Unconditional love is how his love is described for us. You and I have no idea what that means, and its ok. You and I were not meant to understand fully here in the flesh, just as we cannot fully comprehend the size and scope of the Universe. Just because we don’t understand these things, doesn’t mean they don’t exist or cannot exist! How foolish we would be to say that the Universe doesn’t truly exist. Also equally as foolish would be to say that unconditional love isn’t possible because we haven’t comprehended it yet. Just because we cannot fully comprehend the idea of these infinitely large things doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore their realities for us in our lives.
We are made to constantly explore, expand horizons, ask questions, seek the truth, investigate a mystery and to feel this emotion we call love. The hardest thing for us to do, and something that is not innately ingrained in us, is the ability to have faith.
- Faith that unconditional love exists.
- Faith that for such a thing to exist, it must exist in God.
- Faith that infinity is not a fictitious concept and actually exists both physically (as exampled by the Universe) and spiritually (the concept of human consciousness and self-awareness is regularly accepted as fact and is just as “magical†as anything else we’ve talked about).
Everything makes sense with faith and truth. Truth is knowledge and faith is the ability for knowledge’s expansion past the ability for us to receive all truth. If God doesn’t exist, than none of this matters one bit and will never make sense. But, if God exists, and he does love us in ways that we may even not be able to understand, than why not try to ask Him for some sort of sign that he does in fact love you so much that anything you ask, in reason and along with your best interests in mind, will be granted.
So what should we do? Just talk to Him as if he were your closest friend, remembering that he also is your supreme leader in all things with the authority to deny or grant your every wish. How would you treat someone with this authority yet familiarity if you knew someone like that? It’s tough, but just talk as if you are having a long distance phone call. This is the essence of prayer. It isn’t any tricker than my description. It also gives you the chance to: (a) Vent, (b) ask, (c) question, (d) celebrate, (e) praise, (f) ask for healing, (g) ask for help on behalf of another, (h) just have a conversation with no specific point.
-
- Vent about things you thought were unfair and demanded a response from God, yet you never got one
- - Share and maybe vent about your fears and concerns to someone who you thought would have made life easier than it is
- - Ask questions you have always wanted to know but were too afraid to ask
- - Talk about your most inner doubts about Him or religion in general
- - Ask for help on behalf of someone you know that doesn’t know how to pray
- - Tell him about how happy you are and the reason for your happiness
- - Ask him questions about the way in which you can better get to know Him.
- o All of these are good starting topics that most of us have in the beginning.
Open your heart to the possibility. Forget every negative image, thought, feeling, concept, fear, or belief you have about the possibility of God’s existence. This may take a while, but don’t wait to ask Him these questions until you are ready. You’ll never be ready if you intellectually speculate about the time you’ll feel ready. Unfortunately, the world is never going to give you the answers you need to feel ready. The reason is simple: God’s love for us included the ability for each individual to freely choose how they will act or not act. This is called free will. It’s a gift that comes with consequences for bad actions, and benefits for good acts. These consequences are found right here on Earth; I am not referring to consequences of our soul’s final resting place. Forget that stuff for now and just look at the consequences here on earth. Every action seems to have an equally powerful result. Call it Karma, the Ying and the Yang, or reaping what you sow—every major religion has something to say about the resulting effect of our choices. Free will is a learning tool designed to get us to do right rather than wrong. To love rather than to fear or hate. To be kind rather than selfish. To be honest, rather than untrue. We know this because every time we do something that is negative, a negative result follows that affects us. Sure, that cash we stole from a person’s wallet helped pay for a new computer. But then, we somehow lose that same amount of cash we took out of the wallet to some unseen force. Whether a bill was more than it should have been; or we were pulled over and got a speeding ticket that we couldn’t have foreseen; or maybe the computer we buy crashes from a virus that makes it unusable until we invest in the necessary repairs…. The examples are numerous but you get my point.
So, the gift of free will is more like a tool to get us to be better people. When we keep choosing to do wrong over and over, our lives are filled with disappointment, frustration and hurt. When we chose to believe that the Karma thing is actually true, we start changing out behavior and become more happy. That’s how free will effects our personal choices, but unfortunately it can also change our ability to trust. That’s because other people have the complete right of free will just as you do, and sometimes other people choose to do wrong things to you. This creates in us a defense mechanism, and the walls go up to protect us. These walls prevent us in fully trusting someone. Other times, people use their free will to gain power and control over others. In this way, people have corrupted God’s message to us in order for them to gain power and control of others who trust these “religious leadersâ€. For example, the fear of going to hell motivated many medieval Christians because most couldn’t read the bible and were completely dependent on the teachings of the church for God’s message. The church became money and power hungry with this amount of power. Each individual priest or Christian leader had the ability to choose right or wrong, and many chose wrong. They did this because their lives seemed better with limitless money and power over the people you were responsible for preaching to.
They took the message of truth, faith, and love and replaced those ideals for their own selfish purposes, as a child might take a toy from a sibling. These same people were corrupt with power, comfort, and fear of losing all they thought they had. No big deal, they’re sinners as we all are. But why would you believe a corrupt and greedy human being when he tells you something about God? The first reaction most of us have is that because these bad people say these things about God, God must not exist—or if he does, he wasn’t too nice. Is that what inspired this anger, hatred or fear you have against God? Its ok! We all do it! This is the point where you throw that garbage out now. Think about the vastness of space. Sit quietly and think about the meaning of infinity. Then, compare that thought to God and see what happens. Almost instinctually, there seems to be a logical truth that God must exist.
If you really care to learn the truth, ask Him and you will be given the truth in some way that is perfect for your stage of spiritual development. There are very few coincidences in life, so before you brush off one of God’s answers to your questions as “merely a coincidence that couldn’t have been a sign from God†or “just a freak event that happened to coincide with your question to Godâ€, consider it as a real answer from Him and you’ll get it! You will feel love; don’t be afraid. I truly mean this when I tell you that love is healing. If you want to finally know what love feels like, then really think about this message and ask god to reveal himself to you with all truth and honesty in your heart and a miracle will happen.
Faith first. Love follows. Then, truth will be revealed in the eternities. Good luck and God bless!
