Well, I've been planning this blog post for about a month now, but life has gotten crazy in unpreccedented ways. Do you like my new background? I can't decide if it's vintage-y or just little-house-in-the-prarie-ish. I couldn't handle the winter wonderland anymore since I now work in an unheated wearhouse and have become much more interested in the quilts-and-hot-chocolate side of winter than the whole snow thing.
Between my new full time job and my new incredible boyfriend, I find that my time lately is no longer my own. Not that I'm complaining, because really my time never was my own and I hope that for the rest of my life I will have ways to spend it wisely rather than horde it. But I do miss not having time to write, especially since I am learning so many new things and changing so much right now!
One thing I've been thinking a lot about is love. Nope, not THAT kind- the God kind. I've been thinking about the command to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength," and how there's really no way around the fact that this requires some output of emotion. Also, the Bible says, "he who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." So what I'm gathering is that we are REQUIRED to have an emotional attachment to and preference for God above every thing else in existance.
A lot of times when I think about that it seems oppressively difficult, because my heart is compulsive and wraps it's self tenatiously around perishing things and relationships. So what I have been realizing (through God's grace) is that it's not as much about loving the tangable things less as it is about loving God more. Loving Him not just in a sacrificial and resigned way, but in an active and joyful way.
And the most amazing part is that I think, just maybe, the more you love God, the more you'll be able to love others. I think this is Biblical because the very next part of that original verse is to "love your neighbor as yourself." Which makes me wonder and hope that maybe preparing for eternity actually requires living and loving MORE rather than less. Like these are the practice grounds in which our souls are conditioned in the matters that will have weight in eternity. In which case, nothing done here is irrelevent or insignificant in the big picture, not even the things that seem like they're just here to tie us over until we get to our real home.
Pretty cool, right?
