true love

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." Matt 22:37-40

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What does it mean to truly love, by Jesus' definition? I've been pondering. To love God with all my heart, all my soul and all my mind leads to complete obedience to all of God's laws and more. I must obey, yes, but love is an act of will and means more than obedience. Obedience is the foundation; complete assent to doing God's will in everything is true love of God.

A friend of mine told me that she and her mother were talking about the concept of doing what one enjoys. They concluded that, if everyone did what God had written on their hearts to do, everyone would have exactly what is needed in life. I think that may be what God has in mind for the world. He gives each of us talents to be used and shared with others. By our using the talents He gives us, we can love God and we can love our neighbors. If all of us shared our talents with each other, it would be a beautiful world, indeed! I wish we could do a grand experiment. What if people started doing this, no holds barred, with no reservations or fear? Some people grow food, some people make beautiful music or art, some people are engineers, others are builders, nurses...the list is endless, really. Just think, if we all got together and shared what we do best, how marvelous it would be! It seems to me that no one would want for anything. I think this is what the Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles tried to do.

The problem is we can be selfish, fearful, prideful, ready to pick fights, unwilling to share and wanting to do what we want to do when we want to do it, regardless of the consequences at times. However, we can effect change in small positive ways. We don't really have to do any experiments on a large scale. We can be kind to one another. We can hone our talents and find ways to glorify God and help our neighbors by using them. We can love quietly.

My desire is to spend the rest of my life, seeking ways to love God and the people around me by sharing the talents God gave me to help build the kingdom of God and to help others (as well as myself) get to heaven. With the grace of God, I will.