Week 2 Day 2: Wherever Love Is
Week 2: My Relationship with God
Wookbook Exercise: My Garden Plot
Watch: Week 2 Day 2: Wherever Love Is
What makes you most aware of God’s love?
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Transcript of Video:
So how can we come to know the love of God in our lives and in the lives of those around us? I start with the understanding that God is Himself love. God is love. And in a sense all love is God’s love and all love has its source, its ultimate source, in the heart of God. Like that very old hymn reminds us, “Wherever love is, God himself is there.” So we see God’s love all around us in the lives of those that we know, in their compassion, in their generosity, in their giving, in their acts of love and kindness, the way that they care for other people. It is all God’s love even though it is coming through those individuals. Even more immediately, we can come to know God’s love within ourselves because we too, like the people we admire and appreciate, we, too, are instruments of God’s love. We are Christ’s hands in the world, as it were. So God’s love is something that’s alive and present and active in and through us and so recognizing that in our giving, in our generosity, in our compassion, in our loving kindness and care for others, that that’s God living and active and working through us and through our lives.
Some of us have gotten very good at making confessions, you know, making a list of our failings and our sins. But sometimes I wonder if we are not very good at recognizing the good that we do and maybe we need some kind of sacrament, a confession of good deeds. A confession of the ways in which Christ’s love has been active and manifested in our own lives, in and through us. And so I think this is important to consider in a Rule of Life because a Rule of Life, of course, will include some kind of reasonable, healthy self-care plan, some ways to make sure that we are healthy in ourselves. But it also will include some opportunities for serving others and for some plan for giving to others so that Christ’s love can be manifest in and through us, and in an intentional way. I think it is a very important part of making our lives livelier still.
– Br. Mark Brown
I think I am most aware of God’s love for me when resolution and peace arrives (often unexpectedly) following a time of worry/fear/uncertainty/lack of direction in my life. It is like the sun poking through the clouds following a storm, and often times is accompanied by a rainbow. The rain is ceasing to intermittent drops and a stillness starts to descend. I rest in the awesomeness of God yet again reaching out to help and deliver me. Sometimes the storm has been going on for a long time in my life, sometimes less so – but still I am amazed each time that God actually does care for me and loves me. I guess this is a hard thing to really wrap my head around and grasp. I can certainly relate to the Brother’s statement in today’s video, that we are often better at compiling and confessing a list of our sins and shortcomings than we are in recognizing (and thanking God) for the times His love has worked through us to bless and serve others. This would be a good complementary list for me to keep track of.
I do feel God’s love during the Peace at church. I grew up in the Bible Belt. Everyone went to church – some because they were expected to go. I never felt God’s love in the mega churches my parents loved so much. It all felt fake to me. But in the Episcopal church, I feel God’s love quite consistently.
I’ve always thought of denomination being more of a person’s style than a black or white statement of which is the best. I’m so glad I found a church home that suites my own love language so well.
I am made in the image of a God, that is mighty and benevolent, all powerful- God makes me happy to live, because I know I have a back up anytime and wherever, God is my rock…in this way I feel the love of God.
I am most aware of God’s love in the joy of little children and the beauty of nature. The power of His love as experienced in forgiveness: Him forgiving us and us forgiving each other is amazing beyond anything we could ever dream up. When we look upon anything with gratitude and thank Him for it we grow in the love of God and the space we allow Him to have in us grows and shines beyond us to others. God is so good!
Here is a true story about how I became most aware of God’s love for me.
Four years ago I lost my soulmate, my husband to bone cancer. He had been given 6 months to live and placed immediately on hospice. Since I was his wife and a nurse, I took on the role as his hospice nurse too. Bob lay on our bed dying and it was very difficult watching him suffer so my mind was always trying to think of something more I could do for him. Suddenly, I asked him if he wanted to say the rosary. His response was immediate, yes!
He started me out by reciting the Nicene Creed. Up to that moment I had not said the rosary in 50 years nor did I have a rosary. I kept track of the Our Fathers and Hail Marys with my fingers. I vividly remember feeling a sense of peace under this stressful time. From that moment on, I began to recite the rosary daily in memory of my husband but most importantly to thank God for my many blessings and being able to connect with Him who is love and peace.
I remember the love my aged father showed to my even older mother as she slipped away into almost total dementia, taking almost 6 years to fade away. His love, expressed so fervently, even when she showed no response whatever. Such love was a beautiful thing to behold, expressed without any hope of acknowledgement. Supernatural love like this can only come from God.
I always thought of myself as a cold fish, my siblings and I were brought up to not make displays of emotion. As I came to know our Lord, however imperfectly, I came to know the joy of feeling love for others. This is how I became aware of God’s love.
God’s love for me has continuously been evidenced within my on several occasions
1. when the devil thought it would destroy my wife and un born baby at 7 month’s pregnancy its plans were futile when God intervened and saved their lives
2.when the devil thought it would break my family by weakening our relationship but through prayer all this is seeming history.
3. when i almost lost my job through un clear reasons but later the Lord intervened
4.when the devil plotted an accident not to let me survive but so that i can be a sacrifice but through God’s mercy all were futile
5.when my family members thought i can be a sacrifice for their wealth and through augmented prayer my life was set free.
Note;
All these have happening consecutively between March 2016 to date
Its upon this that i feel the lord really loves me for a purpose. JORUM.D
God’s love, for me, is manifest mostly through nature and the goodness and charity of heart that I witness in others. We are all conduits of that love, and when we live in communion with God, the channel opens and we are free to spread that love to others.
I think the biggest thing that makes me aware of
God’s love has been the tremendous change in the relationship between my parents and I. For many years due to abusive relationships that I was in we parted ways. Since my divorce, counseling, knowing that I was struggling with ADHD and all that entails my parents and I were able to meet and cry together and begin that relationship over. I see God’s love everyday even when I am challenging time. Sometimes I see God’s love in the smallest task I do. this all took place because of the love I a was shown by the woman currently in my life who encouraged me to contact my parents. I guess I also God in the healthy relationships that I am in.
I feel Gods love in moments when I am beside myself usually with a ridiculously unimportant but momentarily urgent to me task. In those moments I feel God sigh point me in the right direction and guide me toward calm and patient reflection. If I start there I would ever be in harmony. I also feel his love in my dogs joy when I come home in little children’s laughter in spring snowdrops and sunsets.
His generous gifts
I think of all of the friends, family and professionals that have tried to help me over the years through some tough times, often self-inflicted, and I can’t help but feel that God’s love is behind their actions. Though it might be their job, or they feel some obligation of family or friendship, my unspoken love for everyone’s involvement in keeping me going is real; they have all helped me continue the hope I have for the future, and I ask God to watch over them, and love them all.
I see it in the people who actively care for others. Those who volunteer in the church for the various organizations. Who spend time nurturing future generations to doing the same to pass on their legacy of support. In the compassion for those who need a listening ear who may not feel they have a friend in the world until you come along. Small acts are huge in the eyes and hearts of those who need them.
Thousands of things was my initial answer but then I thought about how wonderful the Peace is a church each Sunday. My husband & I give each other a big hug & kiss & everything feels incredibly peaceful & whole. We are surrounded by hundreds of other people also giving & receiving love & greeting. So how much better a circumstance can you find? It wasn’t always like this for me. Frequently, I’d come to church with grievances. He’d not done enough to help. He’d been blind to my needs. At some point, I realized how silly I was being & decided to stop keeping count. As soon as I let the scorekeeping go, everything was better between us. It has only gotten better each day & each year. Now, we’ve got 38 married & 40 together behind us & we know there will be many more. Then this last Sunday, our Rector added the Great Litany to our Lenten observance. It made me cry. I went home & read it twice more. Could there by anything more wonderful than this? It says so much about our relationship with God.
I am most aware of God’s love….
…when I see the work/actions of a person beyond the call of duty or responsibility, when I see that person acting out of great compassion.
…when I see dedicated members of the church family continue in their volunteer work and ministry for what seems like decades, continuing out of their depth of their experience of God’s amazing love.
…when I see my priests care for the flock, and knowing that not all of their care is made known and is visible, but is ongoing and abiding.
In summary, when I see compassion without boundaries.
What makes me most aware of God’s love? Unexpected gifts of things I didn’t even know I needed: a loving and insightful friend, the hopefulness of a gorgeous sunset, the caress of a gentle breeze on my morning walk. Such gifts are shocking to me because I feel as though my needs are so petty and not worthy of God’s attention. But even I don’t ask (overtly or otherwise) my heart’s desire still shows up. I feel loved. He/she seems to say, “Anything you want, little girl. Anything you want.”
I see God’s love in the natural beauty that surrounds me. I also see God’s love in the people around me, especially the ones I interact with.
What makes me most aware of God’s love is when I see the faces of my fellow Christians light up when they speak passionately about their faith a d faith journey. It is energizing and and exciting so see people reflect God’s love for them in that way.
I see God’s love through the help neighbors and strangers give to other people after a major weather event, such as a tornado. People who are complete strangers come to others in need and offer help, expecting no reward for their efforts. That, for me, represents God’s love because it is care for others without any expectation of reward.
Love itself.
I think I’m most aware of God’s love when someone lets me know that I’ve shown God’s love to them. They seldom put it that way. It’s more that they knew I cared about them, or that I was a comfort to them, or that I inspired them, or something like that. The funny thing is I’m almost never aware at the time that I’m doing anything of the sort. Sometimes, almost in spite of myself, I’ve managed to get out of my own way, to be really present. And I guess that’s made me transparent to God’s love. Since we’re using the theme of nature in this series, I’m reminded of the American beech trees in our woods. For a long time, they’ve been my favorite tree. I love their smooth, gray bark that seems to invite people with pocket knives to carve their initials and those of the ones they love for future generations to see. When they aren’t surrounded by other beeches, I love how they branch out and create shaded clearings beneath the dense leafy canopy of their leaves. And I love how, in groves, they grow straight and tall, with their branches and leaves far above the ground. But most of all, I love how their leaves stay on the branches through winter, becoming more and more transparent to the light before they fall to the ground in spring to make way for new green leaves. What a great metaphor for how to age!
All of the above, but also random epiphanies. They don’t come often enough, but when they do you sort of see through the torn fabric right into the heart of things, if just for a moment. It’s especially nice when these are insights into the past. You might be thinking of something that happened decades ago, and realize there was something special that you missed. You see God’s love in action, but only in retrospect. You missed it the first time around.
Being with children and especially my grandchildren. For me God’s unconditional love is found when I am in the presence of children.
Whenever I see people loving each other, I see God’s love.
I saw a young boy take the hand of an old woman after church, as she struggled to walk from the building. I saw a teenaged couple waiting for a bus, holding each other with laughter in their eyes. I see humans loving humans and I see God.
And by that, I am reminded that *I* can be a bearer of that same love. By loving, openly, publicly, unabashedly, I can be an example of love.
I think I probably am able to experience God’s love the best when I allow myself to let go; let go of trying to figure it out, let go of attempting to fix my situation, let go of carrying burdens that are beyond my strength. I experience His love the most when I cry out like a child, “Father, help! This is too big for me!” The myriad ways He responds to that prayer convince me that He is ever present and ever faithful in His love for me…and quite a bit creative as well!
For me I find God’s love when I help others out were I can. If I try to help someone out that surpasses what I can do it causes to much strain and pain. My problem right now is finding a healthy balance. Retired Rev. Pegg Howell pointed our that I have to much ambition and need to slow down and let God show me where to go from here so that is what I am working on. That was another form of God’s love I witnessed.
The love of family and friends make me most aware of God’s love. I feel that is why a strong family as God intended it to be is so important in our lives and when I am with my family I am the happiest.
What makes me most aware of God’s love? I wish I could say I was aware, but lately I am lost. There are times when I just look at another person and feel it, am overwhelmed by it, that sense of love that is timeless, boundless, limitless. I feel that it comes from God because I do not think my heart is “big” enough to hold that amount of love. Sometimes it just rushes through me when I see a family member or loved one, or have a remembrance of a past friend or family member. Sometimes it is a stranger on a street – just someone unknown, but part of that universal continuum. And it is thrilling and frightening all at once.
I am most aware of God’s love when I see the extraordinary giving that exists within my church and extends outside of its walls – the board of directors coming together to further our work towards a Magdalene house to help women suffering from human trafficking; the regular offering to feed the homeless each week; the anticipation of washing their feet during Holy Week; the desire to help a young teenager suffering from autism and other challenges; the gift of music and evensong; the gift of a few hours off for caregivers of those with alzheimers and dementia. What tremendous ways God’s love is expressed through each of us to others.
At this time in my life, being a parent is what makes me most aware of Gods love. Through what I give and receive. Also when I look at the beauty of the world, I feel it then.
God’s love is most apparent to me in two ways. First, through the loving relationships I have with my children, my lifelong best friend, and — most significantly — through the relationship I enjoyed with my soulmate before we had to separate. If the love I feel (both given and received) in each of these relationships is even a tiny fraction of the love God feels for me and all God’s children, then God’s love is well beyond my comprehension.
Secondly, I experience fleeting glimpses of God’s love through what I can only explain as “thin moments.” Many people describe thin places, but rather than a place, I have a thin moment on occasion that reveals God’s love for me in a powerfully overwhelming way.
…I agree that God is Love and my life experiences have been formational, juxtaposed to love…currrently at age sixty-five I find myself regularly ‘looking’ at our Lord and two of his experiences.
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…when his friends all took off and left him as he moved toward the cross…then he came back to these betrayers…and while hanging on a cross with nails in hands and feet his love turns to the one next to him and says today you shall be in paradise, with me.
…the ‘certified’ psychoanalysts would say of the ‘betrayers’ that their love was enduring but not real…no ‘relationship’ after the death, right? Da! Our Lord turning to the other nailed down one and having this presence of mind to say what he said would probably irk the analysts also? Love? I wondered if our Lord ever even touched the other nailed down one? Oh, yes this is tough Love, right? I dont think so! Why have you forsaken me?
…I agree with the essentialists , when it comes to the Absolute of Love (along with all the other finite experiences of Absolutes)…post-modern psychology just cannot handle this RULE…
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I know God’s love because God hasn’t given up on me. He gently leads me and encourages me to keep going, one step at a time. He tells me to not give up. I felt God’s love when I opened up “Lent in a bag” given to my family at church and read words I needed to hear about how Jesus didn’t give up in the wilderness. I felt God’s love when I heard the words of our priest tell us that we are children of God, and to just hold on to that. I especially feel God’s love through the love and caring of my husband. I am so blessed.
That he would send His only begotten Son to die on a cross for my sins. There is no greater love. Everything else pales in comparison.
Let every garden I see remind me of Christ’s prayer in his own garden asking His Father if that cup could be passed.
I see His creation all around me, for all of us. For me, mostly, it’s the little joys of life. It’s the tiny miracles. It’s the light in the midst of despair.
I am most aware of God’s love quite frequently, and mostly when complete strangers offer unsolicited kindness to me, often beginning with “Can I help you sir?” Another sign of God’s love in my life occurs whenever I am in the presence of the utter vulnerability of another — for example, when I stop to converse with a homeless person on the street, and he or she opens the heart to me so deeply that I am overcome with the power of God’s love. Frequently such encounters end with a completely spontaneous mutual embrace and profound expressions of gratitude on the part of both of us. … Thank you, Jesus, for your closeness.
I am most aware of God’s love in the extravagant beauty of the natural world and in the grace I experience being part of a family. I see God’s love played out in my life–having gone from feeling alone and rejected as a child to, over the years, being surrounded by children and a loving husband and a deep sense of community. When I think on it, God’s love and grace is too much to comprehend, too amazing. . .
The comment about a “confession of good deeds” made me smile. How true that we tend to focus on where we have fallen short and not on the good we manage to do despite our imperfections!
What makes me most aware of God’s love? My husband of 10 years, who long ago vowed never to observe Valentine’s Day on principle (he is against the commercialization of the holiday, & I agree w/ him), handing my son a box of chocolate to give me, so that we wouldn’t completely miss it just because we were out camping.
The love of someone pure of heart, and which of us is closest to that purity than a young child? So also I am most aware of God’s love when my 4- year old son crawls into my lap for comfort; gives me a good night peck on the cheek; tells me he loves me and Daddy “forever” — even though he may have said he didn’t like me earlier in the day, because I told him No.
I had lunch today with a friend from church. I’v been drifting for a few months, reviewing my commitment to this particular congregation. This friend has stayed in touch as have some others, who check with me to see how I’m doing, who tell me they miss me and love me. That’s the strongest way right now that I am seeing God’s love.
I am most aware of God’s love when I am seeing with a grateful heart. Being present in gratitude opens my eyes and heart to wonder. To see with gratitude, I often need to “lean back,” to open a space to allow others to be who they are in that moment. Inevitably, leaning back with a grateful heart opens me to God’s love surrounding me quietly at that very moment.
Being aware of God’s love is easy when something wonderful happens to us or we are feeling on top of the world within our family, our job, our life and especially in love.
How many of us during this wonderful time not only may not appreciate our own contribution of the fortune and love experienced, but feel the love when all is lost, taken away and no longer available? I think that’s the real time to feel God’s love; when we least understand, can’t even comprehend how everything can be so wonderful and perfect and suddenly switch to chaos, loss and pain whether through a sudden death, a violation of our private world and beliefs, or some heinous atrocity happening to thousands half way around the world. How can a loving God allow these things to happen? Searching for some meaning or sense seems impossible and beyond our comprehension. It’s as though we have to forgive God and love him anyway as he forgives us and loves us; a true test of our devotion to God.
Maybe I’m all wrong but I don’t think that’s it. I was never more aware of God’s love then after my husband died. I was married for 33 years to a man that I met and never even considered as a possible marriage partner, but was given a choice and I chose to accept the gift of his love. I ended up loving this man more than anyone else and devoted my self and my life to him. So losing him was not easy, not that it wasn’t a known as there were 22 years between us.
I’ve never felt anger towards his death. He was failing and it was time for his body, the vehicle that housed his soul and spirit like a cocoon to be shed so that the butterfly inside could emerge brightly lit and fly away. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him, to the point where my soul aches. But the love that has come through has been overwhelming. As Patrick Swayze said in Ghost, “The love, it’s incredible. You don’t lose it. It goes with you.” And it comes through back to you.
It takes letting go of our feelings of regret, of wrong doing and opening ourselves up to an unknown before we can begin to appreciate the agenda isn’t ours but one of a larger plan; and that the love isn’t lost, only magnified if we embrace the gifts of life and love from God, not only when we have them, but when we don’t no matter what the circumstances.
The hardest lesson to learn was the meaning an Interim Minister told me once when I was experiencing a very difficult dark period in my life. His parting comment to me was, “Just remember God loves you!” Carry that truth with you every day and repeat it no matter what, especially when you feel it the least and I guarentee you will struggle until one day it hits and hits you hard. Then the love will be beyond belief when and where you least expect it. That’s when you will be most aware of God’s love and never forget it as you will find you can’t live without it.
Knowing that God loves all of us, that God loves me even though I am not perfect, gives me the spark to help others being aware that God loves me always.
I tend to react negatively to the many oblagations and tasks that I must perform. So, your Lenten program this year has inspired me! My Rule of Life that I chose: To find the love and joy of God in every task and obligation that I need to do. I am finding that the love and joy of God can give grace to many mundane tasks….cleaning, cooking, doing dishes, ironing, serving family, friends, community. All activities are now being surrounded with thoughts of God and his love and have become easier and quicker to accomplish. Br. Lawrence’s book is correct…his washing dishes at the monestary, he became enlightened by having loving thoughts of God and not “poor me, what a miserable task I must do”. Amazing how the daily presence of God’s love can be so uplifting to the daily chores making them a pleasure to perform.
Oh, drat. You’re right, a hundred percent right. And I never do that; I rush through everything, thinking about getting it over. You’d think I was late for my date with the President, the way I hurry. Thanks for the reminder.
I am reminded of love particularly from my dogs, who are ready in (almost) any moment of any day to give it – they are like electrical conduits of love – it’s there all the time, right on the surface, and can be accessed so readily!
What makes me most aware of God’s love is when I am with others who are giving love to those I have a hard time feeling love for… also I feel the love of God when I am with those I truly love and care for… so it is when I observe others loving those I have trouble loving.. even though I get they are worthy of God’s love… and when I am with those I love. Just goes to show that God loves everyone… I am not God by any means just a woman who wants to be at peace. It seems okay that I don’t love everyone… what I guess is important is that I don’t hurt others… just let them be and stay away.. ie don’t say anything if you can’t say anything nice…
Slowing down. By slowing down, there is time and space inside to make room for awareness. Once that exists, then there is the ability to come into consciousness of God’s love as it was described in the video.
My children make me aware of Gods’ Love. When I am with them, their affection and caring is most certainly from God, who is the source of all Love. I suppose I should say also that my love and caring for them is also from God. This forms a triangle just like God; One in three, and three in One. May this always be. Thanks be to God.
Another thing that makes me aware of Gods’ Love, is His care for all His creation. Everything He does is for all He creates and Loves. His very creation is a beautiful tapestry of interweaving, and harmony. Amazing. Thanks be to God also for this.
Listening to this, I thought mostly of Jonah’s gourd and of the mustard plant in Jesus parable. Shade. The fact that, in being what a gourd must be and in growing to what a bush becomes — it provides to others. There are plants which choke off other life, like the thorns. There are those which foster it. I call that love.
My life has been filled with God’s love and I have been blessed with a disposition that see the light in most everything that happens. Because of this God-given lens, however, I am not always aware that it is God’s love that is pouring forth in what I see and do. I take the blessings for granted and forget God.
As I work through this process of growing a rule of life, my prayer is that I will live deeply and consciously into God’s love. One simple way is to add, “Thank you, God,” when I express gratitude.
I am mindful of God’s love not only in nature but also in relationships built over years. Relationships that have ended through physical death. Those remind me of the care such individuals took to make a relationship with me and what they taught me (how to live and how to be of service to others). Relationships that are still living with the possibility for growth.
I learned the meaning of the undeserved grace when I had my first child. Nothing I had done–or could have done–in my life would have merited the gift of that baby. Two more children reaffirmed the knowledge that sometimes we get more than we could ever deserve. Now my children are grown, but every little child I see on the street (to say nothing of my grandchildren!) gives me joy and reminds me of the Giver of all joy. Beautiful as a scented rose, amazing as a daffodil–a baby is a constant miracle.
Beautiful!
I have been an active advocate for looking at the good in something/someone before looking for the negative. I wrote a dissertation on a topic, “Appreciative Inquiry” that asks us to start with our strengths and grow from that point. Then we consider where we need to improve from both the vantage point of strength and weakness. It makes a big difference! I found that I was not in a constant state of “self flagellation” about where I had given up, quit doing something important, or simply failed. Instead I tried to draw knowledge out of what I did do well and how I could improve. It IS interesting that if we ask one another what we don’t do well, we can make lists that reach for the proverbial “mile.” But, when posed with a question of what we do well, it becomes almost impossible to list one or two things! In my tapestry of life, there are a lot of crossed threads and errors in needle placement. I look up and see the mess I have made. But, gratefully, God looks down on how beautiful the tapestry is. Sure He knows when there is disorder, but I believe He wants to see how beautifully I have tried, rather than how desperately I have made errors. I see God in everything around me!
As a Deacon and a Pastoral Minister in a small rural congregation of the Diocese of Maine I find myself in the midst of God’s love all around me. It is present in the faces of the elderly person who I visit in their times of need as their faces radiate with that love of God when we have conversation about their struggle. I find it in the small children who come to me at the dismissal as they exit the church in there hugs as they leave to partake of the tasty coffee hour treats. I see and feel Gods love when I go to administer last rights to someone dear to us who is approaching the end of this life, waiting to enter into the next life with their Savior Jesus Christ. I know and feel Gods love when I stand before this beloved congregation and preach the word of God to them and administer the sacraments that Christ commissioned us to share in his body and blood. I see the love and presence of God in the faces I meet at the local restaurants and grocery stores and in all of the people I meet on the street or at work and in the local gym. I feel and know God’s love to be real and ever present in our world all around us and within my daily life and the places I go day by day. God’s love is real and active and ever present, and when I allow him to be in these places of my life and acknowledge that presence it is always a blessing and makes life’s journey one of joy and one of hope filled peace. I Thank God for that love that is possible in all our lives, but the responsibility falls on us to receive and acknowledge each every day on our journey through this life of the presence of His Love..
I sense within myself and see in other’s God’s love all the time, and I do my best to acknowledge it either silently in myself our in spoken word to others. When I don’t “praise” God through this recognition, the love of God is not felt as strongly in me. Petting our cat, looking into my wife’s eyes, bringing food to elderly shut-ins, seeing and responding to a smile from a friend or stranger, receiving a courteous entrance into the traffic lione by some kind motorist–all these remind me of the love of God which holds the world together.
Yes! That moment when two strangers of good will make eye contact–it contradicts the bad news we hear so much of.
How wonderful!
The gift of love from my husband makes me most aware of God’s love.
Kindness and selfless acts of others is when I notice God’s love most profoundly. I also feel God’s love intensely whe I think about the love of my parents or grandparents.
I am most aware of God’s love when I see people in my life care for one another. I see this at church, of course, but also in the world, my world. I see it when little children show empathy, or compassion to each other. I see it when out of concern for my dietary needs. People go out of their way to either, make sure the food id safe for me to eat, or prepare it in such a way that I can eat it. I see it when I have a concern about my friends in the world. I see it when God calls on me to act on my friend’s behalf. I see it when I sing songs of thankfulness and praise to God. it is everywhere.
My own life reflects God’s love. Every day I can experience it in everything I’m and I do. God shows His eternal love for me with His care and compassion. By myself I could not survive and do what I do, but is is through His love that I’m where I’m and I’m what I’m!
I experience God’s love when I have completely emptied myself- mind, body and soul to the work of his kingdom. When I feel his love reach out to others through my emptiness I am humbled and lifted in one amazing contact.
It’s easy to see or feel God’s love in the beautiful things around us. Kind words, happy smiles, loving hugs from our loved ones. I feel God’s greatest presence and love when I am broken. When everything I’ve tried in a hard situation has failed. When I am hopeless and lost there is a presence that never leaves me. Not a fixing or making everything ok presence. A presence that is there with me never leaving my side. It’s in our brokenness that the light seeps in through the cracks.
I particularly connected to the idea that we need to think about our good deeds rather than constanly dwelling on our list of offenses. For my part I realize I spend far too much time looking and thinking about the weeds and not enough time enjoying the beauty the garden produces. Hopefully I can work to find a more balanced approach to my life and recognize the glorious as well as the areas that need tending
What makes me most aware of God’s love? By just re-visiting my life and that of my family. I am a living testimony that there is a God and that God is love. Had it not been for the way God’s love worked and still is working through my life, I would not be where I am at today. Perhaps still struggling, but with the assurance and trust that His love is taking me from where I was to where I am today at the age of 66yrs and hopefully onwards until the last busstop.
“Surrender your own poverty and acknowledge your nothingness to the Lord. Whether you understand it or not, God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you and offers you an understanding and compassion which are like nothing you have ever found in a book or heard in a sermon.” Thomas Merton”
I’m reminded of an prayer said after the offering in the Lutheran Book of Worship that begins:
“Merciful Father, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us – ourselves, our time and our possessions, signs of your gracious love.”
I recall one day in seminary, 20 something years ago, when we were praying that prayer, which I’d been praying already for a good 15 years at least. For some reason, it really hit that “ourselves” was included—and first—as a sign of God’s gracious love. It was a hard time for reasons I don’t fully remember but I fell apart. It felt as if God took this prayer I knew by rote and focused all my attention on that line. At a time when I wasn’t sure what I was doing (I was finishing seminary, but knew I wasn’t called to be a pastor) and God asked me to consider and own that piece of information. Somehow, I am a sign of God’s gracious love.
I suppose it’s a word I need to hear right now, as I, once again. am considering where I am, what I’m doing, to whose benefit am I here.
So, i guess to answer the question put to us, one thing that makes me aware of God’s love is the human made liturgy, which has crept into my bones in ways so that it can surface at moments of revelation and remind me, “here is something you say often enough, here is a moment when you see it is true.”
God’s love for me is evident as I pray. I marvel at his touch as the words spoken in prayer are not the same had they had been spoken in casual conversation. Awe inspired, as I yield to the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s love is poured out to me as he moves through me and leads my time of prayer with and for another. People often say, “How could you have known that was what I needed prayer for, for I didn’t share that with you?” The truth is, I don’t know but God does. How marvelous he is.
As organist, I was at the centre of a horrible division when the church warden unilaterally got rid suddenly of our organ and replaced it with cds. But two years on, the hurt, disregard and power plays have resulted in a healing atmosphere of a better expression of God’s love for one another. I am relieved of the daily music practice and have retired from council in order to personally support our warden who is suffering mental illness. Out of the pit came new ministry for me and I am made to feel more loved on a Sunday than taken for granted as organist.
What makes me most aware of God’s love is the mercy and grace he has shown me. I could so easily be a person who knows nothing of God or his love, but through the merciful gift of his Holy Spirit bringing me to the knowledge of my greatest need, Jesus Christ, he has literally given me everything for life and Godliness in this life and the next.
I am most aware of God’s love when I experience the kindness of strangers. There is obviously no “reason” for the intentionality of their actions. So when I experience the kindness of strangers, I immediately think of God.
When I see people doing extraordinary things with love, compassion and caring in this often scary & violent world, it reassures me that God is at work no matter what the circumstances. I struggle with this Notion often, especially when I see so many acts of violence on a regular basis. However, i can’t let the power of Gods love be overshadowed. People are living examples of God’s work and love, and I hope that I am one too when I care for my family, teach my students and parent my children. I pray his love fills me & passes on to them in my words & actions.
For me, this is simple. I am most aware of God’s Love when I am with my wife. She is the most “Godly” person I know, and she has truly changed my life and made me a better person. I consider her to be my best gift from God, with the exception, of course, of my very life. But my life was not complete until she and I were together.
“But sometimes I wonder if we are not very good at recognizing the good that we do and maybe we need some kind of sacrament, a confession of good deeds.”
I really like this, the Ignatian models offer something like this but I’ve never seen it put this way: one more facet for the rule!
God is present wherever love is. How true it is!
I am aware of that love everyday of my life. He gives me an awareness of His presence. His magnificent creation is another way I know His love. Who could create the babies I have born
except God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?
Who but God could make a seed? “Come now and look upon the works of the Lord, what awesome things he has done on earth.” Psa, 46:9