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My typed sheet was in a folder
safely in the hands of our
webmaster - all complete! But,
wait, look at the quote on the
bottom of Vicki Vanderhorst's
notepage!! It was from
Tolstoy:
"I believe in
God, who is for me spirit,
love, the principle of all
things. I believe that God is
in me, as I am in Him. I
believe that the reason for
life is for each of us to grow
in love. I believe that this
growth in love will contribute
more than any other force to
establish the Kingdom of God
on Earth."
In my piece I had 'written
"As more and
more of us enter the Kingdom
of God by finding the entrance
marked Unconditional Love, we
will not only become more
loving and establish a world
of love and peace. We will
also experience all of the
added things."
So at first I thought it would
be a good idea to ask Gordon to
add Tolstoy's words to my piece.
But I put this thought down
quickly with the insight that I
would probably want to write a
sequel to the February piece, so
here it is.
In the DAILY WORD lesson for
February 5th (I had turned in my
website piece on Sunday, January
25th) I was gratified to read
these words:
I may not think
that every day is
perfect---just as I would have
it be---but I know God's grace
is perfect, an unconditional
love that is constant and
unfailing.
All the month of February I
have of course been continuing to
think about how everything seems
to flow out of unconditional
love, which we might think of as
the name of God!
Here are some statements from
the Bible that add to our
idea:
- Romans 13:10 says,
"Love worketh no ill to his
neighbour: therefore love
is the fulfilling of the
law."
- Then we read in 1 John
4:7,8, and 16: "Beloved,
let us love one another:
for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is
born of God, and knoweth
God.
"He that loveth not knoweth
not God; for God is
love."
"And we have known and
believed the love that God
hath to us. God is love;
and he that dwelleth in
love dwelleth in God, and
God in him."
In his magnificent analysis of
love (found in 1. Cor. 13) the
Apostle Paul says that no matter
what we do, if it is not done
with love, it has no true worth.
He goes on to list, among the
aspects of love, love that
"suffereth long, and is kind,
envieth not, vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, doth not behave
itself unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not
in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the
truth, beareth all things,
believeth all things, endureth
all things."
So as I seek really to
be in this kingdom of love, I
have been reminding myself of all
these things that love can
accomplish in our behavior and
relationships - and it has been
helping.
"Slow to anger" is another way
of saying "is not easily
provoked." I've really been
working with that one!
One realization that has been
a recurrent theme for me is that
I don't have to be right all the
time or have the last word or
even have a comment sometimes.
Let other persons be the free
individual expressions of God
that they really are. Let
them be! Unconditional love says
to me that things are not as
world-shaking as I have sometimes
felt. As Charles Fillmore wrote,
love is a universal solvent!
Shortly after coming up with
this unconditional love idea, I
was going through my typical
attempt to be perfect (anytime I
get a new spiritual idea, I think
it will produce this result) as I
approached a putt on the golf
course. The inner dialogue went
something like this: Well, if I'm
really in the consciousness of
unconditional love, I ought to be
able to sink this putt (not a
long one, at that!) But when I
missed it, I said to myself, it
doesn't really matter, does
it!
What a good feeling.
Let's face it. We human beings
do miss a good many putts, fail
to make a good many phone calls,
forget to buy what we were told
to get at the grocery store - and
a lot of things that we normally
think of as pretty bad mistakes.
Not just me; not just you; not
just the premier, etc., etc. Oh,
what a difference it will make
when we gently release all of
this stuff into the pool of
unconditional love.
I hope some of you reading
this and last month's pieces on
unconditional love will be
blessed as you make an attempt to
live this way. And I will be
gratified if you will communicate
your experiences with me.
Don
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