This last weekend I was at a conference. One day one of the speakers spoke on love. I was moved to desire to love more deeply. Here’s some of the commitments I made:
- I relinquish all control of others, and commit to the liberation all people.
- I choose to be kind, even to the meanest.
- I celebrate the success of others, even my enemies.
- I refuse to protect, secure or improve my reputation.
- I renounce pride, and consider others as better than I.
- I decline making demands, even when it would be expected and accepted.
- I forsake irritation, even with the most irritating.
- I quit resentment, and keep no record of any wrongs done against me.
- I work for and celebrate justice for others.
- I propagate the truth of unconditional love, confident that it will win the day.
- I will not give up on, lose faith in, or cease hoping for anyone.
- I choose a love that endures through all circumstances.
That should keep me occupied. At least for today.
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Wow David, that’s quite the list!
Good stuff…
nice David – makes me sad I missed last weekend.
#12 is too tough
Wow, good luck with that…
Yo Dave…..sounds like you just bought a one-way ticket to Tibet…to be amoung like bretheren. Good luck, and will getcha a beer when you get out to St. Martins.
I long to be in a place where I can love like that. I have been so struggling with dying to myself. I find it the hardest to do with those closest to me.
David – do you think it’s possible to be so secure in God’s love that we don’t have to try to do those things? Could that kind of love just come out of us as a fruit of what is inside of us?
“At least for today…” Isn’t that the truth?
I think you hit it on the head: if we die, these things are.
“I do, and I ask God to help and guide me.” (It will be Confirmation Sunday in many liturgical churches this week.)
Regarding dying to self – it has to be motivated by love – as a fruit or a symptom of the love we have inside . If we simply try to die to ourselves out of a sense of rule keeping or a detachment as the buddhists do, we miss the whole point of what the Bible says about love. I long to be filled with that extravagent love and I know I have at times had great revelation of God’s love for me that spills out to others….. but it’s hard to keep.
That’s a really great message and list to check each time we deal with relationships with others (from spouse to neighbor). I think many of that is meant in the idea ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ (which also entails the view of how God loves you). I also keep a checklist like this with the way I treat other people – and I think everyone should so they self-regulate their actions towards others and live according to an idea (which is actually a law) – ‘love your neighbor as yourself’.