Week 6 Day 5: Respond
Question: How does your love bubble up in response to others today?
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Transcript of Video:
Love is one of the reasons for our existence, but in order to love, I think we need to start with the truth that is found in the first letter of John: we love because God first loved us. Our love is a response to God’s great love, and we respond to that love with gratitude. Love is something we receive as a gift from God and it should bubble up and cause us then to respond to other people and whatever is going on with that sense of the love of God. That life that we have is, for each of us, our own gift from God, which we are giving to God as a response to his love.
-Br. David Allen
During a volunteer meeting, grateful for the service and gifts revealed by a colleague. We had just met but at the end embraced. There is love shared in extending love to others with a common mission. Also, sharing my best friend’s cancer journey … we laughed uproariously at a common understanding of a challenge and I said – I am so glad that I went before you on this walk so that I know what we are laughing about. A genuine sharing of emotion is the manifestation of bubbled up love.
I had a difficult patient today and I was able to be more compassionate and caring than usual due to my focus on love.
It does by being aware of the joy of a new day. Out of that joy love bubbles up. I get my family their morning tea, and I feel love as I give it to them, and enjoy it with them.
My love bubbles up in response to the other people on my airplane home, my little grandson, squirming and waking up in the morning, my daughter in law and son with their unique perspectives, love and ways; my husband with his accepting and giving responses to me, our friends that are with us for an overnight, spontaneous stop, my girlfriend that I spend several days with. All the people I interact with throughout my life and every day.
How does my love bubble up in response to others? I’ve been reading Albert Holtz’s “Pilgrim Road” for #Lent2015 and in one chapter he writes of the monastery of Lerins located on a tiny island in the French Riviera. It was founded around 400 A.D. Living on the island was/is possible because of a supply of fresh water from an underground river that provides “sweet water flowing amid the bitterness of the sea.” Often as I navigate my day the words “I love you, I love you, I love you” flow through my mind like a gentle undercurrent, similar to the river of Lerins, waiting to “bubble up” and encourage life just as the @SSJE brothers suggest. In their simplest form the words manifest as a smile. I hope I allow these smiles to flow abundantly over whomever I meet. #SSJEtime #respond
When I pause to recognize the love I am given from God, then I can feel it. This is why morning meditation time is so important for me. When I feel the love of God, I can give it back through loving others. They respond with love. And the cycle goes on.
Love “bubbling up” is a new idea for me. My love actions tend to come through forethought. I intend to be helpful, to put the well-being of others ahead of self. But when I am suddenly faced with an unexpected opportunity to love through deed, I fail to do it if the decision has to be made very quickly. It is this quick action that I think of as “bubbling up.”
I do in-home care with seniors, specializing in hospice. When one of them is having an especially good day and/or make a sweet remark, I can’t help but love them. Same when one of my kids in Cambodia send me a praise report.
Telling my husband that I love him and I’m proud of him. Reading a devotional and saying a prayer with my son when I tuck him in at night, and knowing that he knows that he is loved. Trying to help good things happen where I work and build up those who work with me. Finding moments to reach out to friends and making time in my busy schedule to see them. Noticing those little “coincidences” where God is speaking to me (as another commenter illustrated so well). Expressing gratitude–to others, and to God.
Jesus came to Earth to teach us to, “Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself.” Period. End of discussion.
Today my love bubbled up through laughter, a text to a friend who wasn’t feeling well yesterday, a smile shared with a colleague, tempering my sharp tongue with kindness. Love bubbles up differently in every circumstance, and it’s a joyous mystery to reflect on.
Spending time with my friend Mira from India is a joy. We have known each other since 1978 and earlier, while not knowing each other, we lived in the same section of Bombay.
Also a good time volunteering at the church’s homeless shelter for women –just doing what needs doing and everyone working as a team.
Even when someone is having a bad day, love can bubble up inside them with a kind word from someone. That is all it takes.
Amen. And remembering how we felt when that badly needed kind word was heard and felt in our hearts can encourage us to be open to seeing opportunities to do the same for someone else.
Though I am struggling with love in many ways at the moment, I generally make an effort to be welcoming and loving towards those I interact with during the day — friends, family, coworkers, etc. As much as is possible, I try to be a cheerful and lighthearted presence, even when my heart is heavy.
I wasn’t very loving today
This is a perfectly put homily, and one I want to meditate on.
My loves bubbles up in making me feel good – rejuvenating me, inspiring me, enthusing me and making me happy to be where I am, often affirming my own thoughts and convictions. Its a very healthy thing, love.
Today my friend and I talked at length about how we may respond to God’s love by more active and public witness to his Word. We are excited to make our shared dream a reality, and in this heady moment, I really feel the love!
Today it is not bubbling. Today it is hard work.
My day was like that, too, as it has been a very tough week for me. So maybe yesterday was not bubbling. Maybe I’ll consider it as simmering, waiting for the chance to bubble over another time.
Love that!
Walking my dogs and witnessing their simple joy in going outside and exercising and smelling the grass. Making time to go on a date with my husband tonight, which is something we don’t do often enough each week.
How appropriate that today I be reminded of the bedrock of God’s love for our very existence. Thank you. I will be presiding at a monthly care home communion service this afternoon from which I always take more than I can give. God’s love does bubble up inside me with the residents’ eagerness, smiles, and devotion. I know so little about their previous lives, but I get to be with their faithful presence.
When I turned on my computer this morning, the first news article I saw was that it is believed that the copilot of that German plane deliberately ran the plane into the mountain. So this morning my love is taking the form of prayer for everyone connected to this horrible event: families/friends/coworkers of the passengers and crew (including the copilot), people who live and work in the area, the rescue team, all of us, really, because the ripple effect of this tragedy touches all of us in some way…. And I pray for the people who’s lives were changed by he tornadoes last night…I am also praying for friends who are struggling with physical and mental health issues….
I also found my self praying for all touched by this terribly tragedy – made all the more so, I feel, by the fact that it was caused deliberately.
My love bubbled up in a whole-hearted response to my sister-in-law when she phoned and we talked about getting together over Easter; in going through the trash in search of a paper my husband has lost; in my response to those who served me at the check out at the supermarket; in my concern for my son and people around him following the tornados in Tulsa.
My heart overflows with gratitude for God’s love and many gifts.
My love bubbles up when I receive a smile from a stranger or when a close friend drops by for a cup of tea.
My love bubbles up to others by being responsive and helpful. This morning, I’ve been recommending a former colleague for a speaking engagement and a position on a Board. I was thoughtful in making the case for her in each instance and responded quickly and purposely when I was asked further questions. It was a total pleasure to help a good and deserving friend.
What is love? I have just returned from about four km of walking around the area in which my wife, two godsons, our lovely sheltie puppy and I live. I walked outside our subdivision onto the streets around it. There are a lot of fast food sales places around here. You know, Starbucks, McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Harvey’s, Swiss Chalet, A & W, and Subway are some of the names. I live in London, Ontario, Canada. We had a very snowy, cold February and early March here. Well, now as the snow melts one can see all of the garbage and cigaret butts that have been thrown from passing automobiles and from the hands of people who have finished their food and drink and simply tossed the paper dishes, drinking cups, and wrappers on the public property bordering our roads. Some of it is in the gutters and some of it is on the lawns and yards of people’s homes, a Salvation Army Church and businesses. Here is how my love is bubbling up. I am trying to think of a way to get people to love each other enough to care enough to put garbage that occurs when they have consumed their fast food and drinks in a garbage can. Maybe it is as simple as when we see someone smoking, drinking or eating the products of fast food restaurants, or drinking from a disposable soft drink can or bottle, simply to ask these persons, “Do you know where there is a garbage receptacle where you can place those wrappers, or dishes?” I love the resources that God has given all of us. I love the city we have built. I will show my love by putting my garbage in garbage and re-cycling cans. I will show my love by carefully thinking about how I use any of our God-given, resources, which are provided by the people who work around us.
Patient listening, laughing with others even in the face of pain, enjoying signs of spring, getting into bed with my wonderful husband at the end of a long day 🙂
I recall the wonderful sense of love bubbling up in an exciting effervescence, but I won’t put the word “should” with it. Lately, love seems to emanate from my woundedness and vulnerability. It’s my cracks where God’s light breaks through, and my task is to put aside my pride and feel my pain to be the light for others. Personally I’d rather pass the love champagne, but for now that truth is a matter of seeking clarity in the depth of stillness.
“It’s my cracks where God’s light breaks through.” Beautifully put. Although it may feel better to share our joy with others, there is a time to share pain, too, not only others’ pain but our own struggles toward healing and joy. It’s something we all go through, whether we like to admit it or not, as setting aside that pride is not an easy thing.
For me, I am working on learning to relax the expectations I so often have for myself, many of which are frankly unrealistic, and which tend to cause ripple effects with others that I don’t want as I keep trying to be strong. Yesterday a wise older friend said to me that she has discovered that when she has had to be weak, to feel weak, it is there that she has found her strength.
I think today I’ll be a little more “cracked,” to let the light shine through. Blessings to you on your journey.
My love today is bubbling up toward my family and loved ones because there is a need and a strong desire to share my love. This desire comes from the core of my being, driven by the abundance of love that God freely gives to me each day.
You have expressed exactly the way I feel about love. It bubbles up from deep down inside- there is so much love, I need to share it.
sometimes just washing the dishes before you go to work is an act of love.
In anything I do for the benefit of others without expecting something in return.
A kind word, attentive listening and realizing the blessing of a loving community of faith…
I’ve had the flu this week and my wife’s tender care and compassion reminded me how much goodness there is in the word and how much being loved by someone is a gift we will never fully understand. Much like we can never fully understand God. Accepting the mystery and giving back is what we are called to do
I am a member of an online spiritual community whose mission is to share teachings of and mutual love for Thich Nhat Hanh. In doing so, we express God’s love for us and our love for each other as God’s gift to us. It is a beautiful feeling to go through my day knowing that I’m loved by people all over the world. I also feel blessed to have relationships with extraordinary people with whom I can share love and grow in spirit. In response, I feel ready to share with those who feel unloved, rejected, marginalized, or otherwise forgotten. I remember how this feels…I think we all do. I feel excited to be a part of the solution; Let the love flow. In love, there is peace. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
When I feel love it is a gift from God that I am so blessed with. I want to show love to everyone because I love people. I wish I could block out all the negative and show love to everyone at all times. He does. Father help me to not want to walk away and be alone when I come in contact with those that cannot love. Help me to show them Your love more during these times. Thank You for all the love you do show me.
I am visiting the downtown area of a large city and I am always surprised at the number of mentally ill and homeless people on the streets. I am asking myself how I should love them.
Today, the bubbles might not be recognizable to others – it’s not looking to be a good day at all, so what might be the best of my efforts may not compare to what I’d like to show. It’s not that I don’t dearly love the people I’ll be with, it’s that the conditions and situations are so challenging that I’m already at my limit. I’m trusting that God will consider the effort, not just the manifestation. Perhaps, with a lot of grace, I can separate my feelings of love from my feelings of frustration and it will appear loving to others, and bubble up that way..
It is so easy for me to forget each morning that God loves me and that he has given me the gift of life – and love. Today I will practice through out the day to feel loved when I see the beauty of the day, interact with the world. I also feel loved seeing the beauty of Spring
Since I live alone, I get most of my awareness of God’s love in immediacy through appreciation of nature and my animals who love me back without restriction. (I know that is because I feed them and care for them to keep them healthy, and have them as my companions)! I love my “books” that I study to learn more about God active in the world. Then, there are the little “miracles” that seem to occur, timed to grab my attention, when I have a “great” need, search, questioning, etc. or close friends dropping in by e-mail when I have had a difficult day, or a special invitation in the midst of a crowd to take a class coming up this fall (2015) that I could not get into last semester. One day, I was asking God, again, what I should be doing? if I was on target?
etc. Suddenly, the silver cross that I wear on a chain around my neck turned bright rosey gold, as if on fire. So, I know that the sun coming in my window from the west in the afternoon had landed there, but it was the timing!!!! A couple of days ago when I was having a disastrous (and expensive) “fight” with the computer, an unknown person (“angel”) offered to send me a small screw in the mail which should fix my dog clippers so that my mini poodle can get a hair cut soon, the last one being last August, with temperatures going to be in the 70’s today. God seems ever present . . .
P.s. Books that fall into my gaze in a bookstore, right on target with what I have been seeking, the scripture reading of the day that stays with me, the memory of a tune and the words that ” lead me on”, a kind, supportive person dropping into my thoughts or memory that help me find an “answer” , and the list goes on.
I too have these kinds of experiences. They are so encouraging!
It’s the joy I feel when somebody I have been trying to help laughs out loud for the first time. Sometimes even a tiny smile from someone who has been very depressed is a cause for joy and gratitude.
My love can bubble up to others in a smile, a warm conversation, a hug or hand squeeze, a compliment or in curiosity about another person’s passions.
It is the benchmark that we have in our life. As we come to know and accept God’s love, we are free to give it to others, without regret or demands. Br. David is right that in my life, I had to accept God’s love first, or the other pieces didn’t fit. I like to think of my love as freely given and not something to be earned. Today I will try to honor those I meet, without looking for a reason first to love them.
The Psalmist said it so well when he wrote, “Because she loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue her; I will protect her, for she acknowledges my name.” Psalms 91:14. If that doesn’t make a person “bubble over,” I don’t know what would!
Perhaps in letting go a bit, relaxing into the fact that I am loved exactly as I am, and not trying so hard to live up to expectations that really may not be there at all.