Love Flows From God’s Light Within Us

Yesterday, in his sermon “Life, Light, and Love,” Pastor Adam quoted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Love may seem like a cliché response to the challenges we face and the suffering in the world, but love is powerful. It can change the world. The lives of the Rev. Dr. King and Sonia Warshawski remind us that choosing love not only changes our hearts, but it brings goodness into the world around us. Neither the Civil Rights leader nor the Holocaust survivor let hate rule in their hearts or lives. 

But how do I actually love others? My mind often thinks in imagery or metaphor. When I’m thinking pictures pop into my head. As I heard Pastor Adam preaching, I thought about The Garden of Eden. I’ve been thinking about it all weekend. I spent part of Friday and Saturday at a retreat for the Spiritual Direction program I’m in. I love spending time in nature, learning new things from books I read, listening to my colleagues talk about their families, singing in worship on Sundays, and laughing with my kids. Whenever life feels beautiful and good I want to hold onto it, bottle it up, and freeze time. It feels like how all of life should be. It feels like what I imagine life was like in the Garden of Eden. I’ve been thinking about how much my heart and soul need moments each day and every week when I feel fully alive, filled with love, and surrounded by God’s light. I need the hope I feel when I experience those moments of abundant life. Moments when I think, like Stella said to her Papa (Pastor Adam) “this is the life” as they were floating in the lake. While we don’t live in the Garden (our daily lives all too clearly remind us of that fact), we can experience it. We can catch glimpses of how life should be when we feel the joyful moments.

As I think about how to love others, I recognize that it’s hard for me to love when I’m exhausted, upset, and feeling unloved. Yes, I can always choose to make loving choices, but it is so much easier when I’m connected to the abundance God makes possible. So my invitation for all of us this week is to take time each day to reflect on how we spend our time and to honestly ask, “What leads me towards love and life? And what leads me away from God’s best?” I think when we’re honest about our daily lives and what is going into our hearts and minds, we may make different choices. Can you make one small change that helps you to better feel God’s love and in turn be able to love others better?