Day Fifteen: Good News - its about God not "me." (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Day Fifteen: Good News - its about God not "me"

Deuteronomy 6:5 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."

I sat today in a hospital lounge. The young women across the way were clearly having relationship issues. "If he expects me to love him then he'd better start _______" (you fill in the blank) sums up the loud conversation. There were lots of demands voiced; lots of conditions and expectations that must be met; lots of ultimatums; and he'd better do better in the Christmas gift department or else. (laughter)

Sadly, very nearby, off to one side a young woman sat. She was dressed in a blue hospital gown, clutching a child's new teddy bear - I've seen well loved teddy bears all ratty and worn before - this one was new - the ear still bore a tag. An older woman (her mother perhaps) was comforting her. The mother wept ... the daughter sobbed.

I am not sure where we got the idea that "I" am central to the universe? This viral idea infects us and strips us of any hope of love and any possibility of joy. Have we lost our grasp on the very foundational notions of what love is? Love is not service of me to satisfy me, attention to fulfill me or ministrations that provide me ecstasy and joy. Me-love brings dissatisfaction, emptiness and misery; "what's in it for me" may be the mantra of this age but it's killing us. Me focused love is a deadly epidemic.

What is the cure for this? I am certain the cure is knowing just how radically God-centered reality really is! But how? How can this culture of "me" be turned around? Perhaps it is hearing anew the wondrous message from on-high come to us incarnate in the flesh of a newborn child, a child born to die, a child who left His mother sobbing at the foot of a cross; the cross borne in selfless Love by the Christ of Christmas.

1 John 4:7-10 " Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins."