And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinithians 13 verse 13
Love has been the main theme of my life for a bit more than a year now. Not as I learnt it as a child, but in an entirely different way – learning to love myself, learning as I have read, that there are no others. As I treat myself I treat all beings. It’s just the way life works. As I have fallen in love with myself, and with this process of loving all the annoying, persistent, whiny, needy, hungry parts of myself – learning to govern myself with wisdom, cunning and generosity, I have been able to take much burden off of my loved ones, I have learnt to be the gift. In feeding my self and starving all I am not, I have begun to truly worship God. Turns out, He is my one true desire, my alpha and omega, and everything in between. He is my path.
As I have fed Love, I’ve found myself recently digging more and more into faith and hope as things that are more real than my own body. By believing in the love that is my origin and the fabric from which I am fashioned, I put faith in my own desires, my hopes and dreams, as a hidden road map that God snuck into my existential pocket at the moment of my conception. This is how He tells me my purpose, how I should spend my precious time and energy on this spinning planet. He wrote His plan for me in my heart, with indelible ink. And just as hidden words appear written when Gandalf tosses the ring into the fire, as I have thrown myself into the Fire of His love for me I find His plan for me tattooed into my DNA. As blinding and clear as the Colorado sun on a stark blue day.
But then rises the question- what do I DO with these blueprints for the Taj Mahal as I live my little suburban life?
Believe in them, hope in them – against all odds.
As it so often unfolds in human life, when a person receives a Divine commission, the people and circumstances closest to them tend to be rather suspicious and doubtful or to laugh them off as a dreamer with their head in the clouds. They end up appearing crazy. Most of the people I model myself after in any way appear this way – Jesus, Mother Theresa, JP2, Theresa of Avila, St. Therese, and countless more. I’m beginning to believe that appearing crazy is a sign of real sanity.
The main thing that has kind of blown my mind in all of this is that exactly that passage in Corinthians states, love is the greatest of the theological virtues, and what I didn’t know about that was that it would give birth to a faith and a hope so real I feel I am made up of them. As I live my little suburban life I deeply and truly believe that God is somehow making the Taj Mahal out of all of this. I believe that my wildest dreams and more are already reality – they’re just hanging out in the quantum field waiting to manifest where the senses can perceive them.
All of this to say that when we trust God and choose him as the King of our hearts and lives, He brings His kingdom in quite beautiful and surprising ways into the world.
Neither shall they say “lo here!” nor “lo there!” for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17:21
The Eye of the Needle 