God is love. To notice when love is present and when it is not is to notice when God is present and when He is not.
Our feelings are so important. They are gifts from God. They help us to learn more about ourselves as well as God. Unfortunately we live in a time where people seem to be slaves to their emotions. That slavery causes them to be victims filled with anger, pride and at times even hate. Sadly, hate can be a magnet that catches many even though we know God is not the author of hate. That comes from His enemy. Our emotions are great tools of discernment to help us learn more about ourselves and Jesus and by that our true authentic self.
When we listen to our heart and how it feels when we experience some sort of love directed towards us or see it happening to someone else, we are drawn to it because we are drawn to God. What a great practice it would be to try and duplicate the act of love in a way that we can. For instance, if it felt good that someone shared a pleasant thought with you and it lifted you up, share a pleasant thought with someone else so they, too, can be lifted up. If we took notice, we would find a multitude of ways that love is shared and expressed that does not take a great deal of time or effort. We don’t have to wait. We can do it at any given moment and we can learn so much by being aware of the moments when we felt good at the hands of someone else’s actions. When we share what we’ve learned from someone who gave us a bit of God’s love, it is like being one with the person and God. The person because you are taking what you’ve learned from them. God because it is He who is love.
When we listen to our emotions that surface and see that they are negative— such as hurt, anger, anxiety, worry, fear or sadness, we should try and look for the cause. Often times we will find the root is love. We may be, for instance, angry, worried or fearful because someone we love is threatened. Once we get in touch with the love and better understand the negative emotion, we can find God and work to react with Him and not without Him. Sometimes we find wounds and better understand a love that was shaken and needs to be restored. If we search, we can always find God and if we don’t have to react instantly, time to pray on negative emotions affords us much growth in our authenticity.
So often when it’s a negative emotion we end up judging and complaining. If we instead tried to turn it into love, we could make a positive difference. We could turn it around for good by cooperating with God who is love. If we did this we could become one with the person who hurt us. Like the one who made us feel loved, the one who has hurt us has changed us for the good if we make an effort to look for love and not complain and judge. They could potentially make us more loving. Instead of complaining and judging someone, for instance, who yelled at a cashier, we could put ourselves in the cashier’s place. We could empathize with their hurting heart. We could decide that we would never act like that and, in fact, go out of our way to show kindness to other cashiers. Now we have turned what could simply have ended with judgment and complaint and turned it into love. St. John of the Cross, OCD said, “Where there is no love, put love and you will find love.” You would be doing just that. You would be putting love in the situation and because of that you would be placing God in the situation. If we did this, it would be like uniting ourselves to the one who aggravated us by taking what they made us aware of, using it to cooperate more with God’s love and by that spiritually wrapping them in love instead of anger and judgment which is so often the reaction. It is a form of prayer for them and a form of forgiveness. We aren’t harboring any ill will towards them. We aren’t taking what they have given us and making it worse. Instead we are being thankful for the lesson they have given us so that we could grow more loving. Even if it happens directly to us, in time and with prayer and practice we can see that it’s not a point of being loved, but loving others. When we are detached from needing to be loved we can love even those who aggravate and hurt us because we can see it all as a gift to grow closer to God and in His love. That is the goal!
Can you imagine the type of person you would grow to be if you always made it a practice to look at your emotions and find the love even if it was hidden? Can you imagine the difference you would make in the lives of others because of the love that was growing in you? You would continually grow in actually being the prayer of love with your very life. We are all one so if you practiced this, others would have to feel the difference when you entered a room and when you left it. They might not realize it. You might not realize it, but it would be happening. God is love so through you He would fill the hearts of those in the room. God would be felt when you enter and when you leave, the room may very well deflate. We have all experienced the energy of a room deflate when certain persons exit. That is God’s love that has dissipated once they left. Be the person that people come to know as the one who lifts up the room. Not because you need to be loved or that you are the life of the party focusing on yourself and how you can get people to notice you, but because you are the one that notices everyone else. You are the one that makes them feel special. You are the one that makes them feel loved. You are the love because you are the branch connected to the vine who is love. It’s not something you can do only occasionally. It is something you can do whenever you are with people and because of the many ways that technology connects us you can do it even when you are alone.
This is the person I want to be, but my intentions are thwarted a million times a day. I awake and say I want to do something for someone else and the unexpected responsibilities of the day get in the way of the things I want to do. This week, as I have had more time, everything I wanted to do for others seemed to take much longer. So what was the problem? Did God not want me to do these things? No. I’m sure He does. They are good and purposeful. What He is trying to help me to learn is to not only be love, but be present. There were so many opportunities I had to be love in the moment, but I was looking at them as interruptions. If I can grow in being present in meditation and from that learn to be present in the moment, I can be that person who makes a difference by cooperating with God and being His love moment by moment. I would do what I plan to do for others in God’s time and embrace what He sends me in the moment. How I put love into the world would not matter as much as simply doing it, moment by moment in cooperation with God and the desires of His heart.
PRAYERFULLY REFLECT ON. THE FOLLOWING
“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1John 4:8)
“Where there is no love, put love and you will find love.” St. John of the Cross
Jesus prayed that we would all one. “I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in Us, just as You are in Me and I am in You. (John 17:21). Can you see the difference you may make in the presence of others simply by being aware of the love that is within you, the love that is God, the love that is possible because you are one with God just as they are?
Have you experienced any negative emotions this week? In prayer can you peel them back and find love at the root of them?
You can love because God is love and He is in you. “Remain united to Me and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can only do so if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in Me.” (John 15:4).
Have you experienced any positive emotions this week? In prayer can you think of a way that you can make it a practice to do the same for others in a way that works for you?
Can you understand that because we are one, when you pray and work to grow in love and then offer up your life as a prayer, you are a continual prayer of love that all united to you and God are affected by? Because we are one, can you understand the importance of being a prayer of love and not one of anger or hate? Pray on this and talk to Jesus about it.