Day 140i: If GOD truly Loved the world … (September 16, 2019)
It was pretty cool to see the first (and I believe only) Yellow Arrow on this American portion of my Walk (with yellow arrows being one of the primary methods of marking The Way for all pilgrims who happened to be walking across Europe), and it was pretty uncool to then see yet another Christian church mingling Jesus’ Way of Peace with humanity’s penchant for violence …
“If God loves the world, might that not be proved in my own limitless Love for it as well? I prayed to know in my heart a celestial adoration for the world, and yet this was my most prideful, foolish, and dangerous prayer. It was my step into the abyss. For as soon as I prayed it, I knew that my own Love had died. Just as any Good Man would never coerce the love of his wife or the cajole kindness from his friends, the Divine does not manipulate the Love of His sentient creatures as well. For to allow that Love to exist fully and freely, God must allow it to not exist at all as well. Perfectly unconditional and fully selfless love is thus both our freedom and our sorrow – the latter when abandoned and the former when actualized. And all the Love I know is in this: that a man (or woman) might so adore this earth and every sentient cousin upon it that it would break his heart to see any of those cousins suffer or even one centimeter of that earth marred or abused … None of us are innately bad or evil. Quite the opposite, in fact. We float around and run across each other and learn about ourselves & others, and we all strive to do Great Things and we all make mistakes in our striving. We hurt others – sometimes inadvertently, often on purpose, and we hurt ourselves as well (especially whenever choosing to knowingly hurt others). And so it is that we can – and we should – forgive ourselves and each other for our failings, even as we fight to right all wrongs felt or seen, and even as we continue seeking to cleanse our own misaligned inclinations.” ~ inspired by Wendell Berry & Dan Harmon
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