Love God with All Your Soul
Passion, Personality, Decision
Although I understand and agree with the general direction and thought of the author in this reading I think he has something backwards. I appreciated the explanation of the words used in the Old and New Testaments. These point us to passion and personality. I do not recall the soul being described as the "decision center" (my words not the author's). In the context of his writing I can understand what he is trying to say.
I do think it is important for us to love God with all we are. The author says passionately and personally. With all we are and with all we have inside us. I cannot imagine anything more bland, unattractive and dissatisfying than passionless love and yet too many of us settle for that in our relationship with God and others. I like the emphasis on loving God as only I can (personally) because I am a unique individual. This is not a license for aberrant behavior but rather a call for uniquely personal expressions, those that come from your unique personality. It is so freeing not to have to be like someone else or to do something just like someone else. God expects us to love Him as only we can. I cannot be you and you do not want to be me. Let's not look for conformity but rather for community.
The one place I think the author got it backwards if when he writes, "our soul is the expression of our life passion" (pg 50). I think our life passion is a reflection of our soul. Wilberforce was passionate about the abolition of slavery because of his soul not the other way around. Jesus said "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matt 12:34). Out of the heart come our passions. The things you are passionate about reflect or are expressions of your soul. Now that is a sobering thought. My soul is revealed in the things I am committed to. Can I love God with a "success at any cost" soul; a "money seeking" soul; a "NASCAR" soul? On and on I could go. The answer is that God wants us to love Him with all our soul whatever its condition. He also wants to mold and shape our soul into what He wants it to be. That can only happen when I have give it all to Him.
Today I have decided to love God passionately and personally with all that I am and have.
What do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment