Tuesday, December 11, 2001

"Starting Where Jesus Started: with His LOVE!"

"I give you a new commandment," said Jesus, "Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another." John 13:34

"We are loved and we belong." So writes Ronice Branding after reading John 13:34 (above.)
Branding asks, "Have we allowed ourselves to receive this gift of love?" How do you answer?

In the midst of needs and wounds and wants within us and constant pressure upon us to consume more, to meet expectations-beyond-number, and, always, pressure to conform - "go along to get along," - how do we believe and feel "Jesus loves me - this I know - for the Bible tells me so!"

What is true and healthy for us to believe for ourselves, namely, "we are loved and we belong," is critical also for all our words and witness to other people. Branding quotes Henri Nouwen's counsel about peace-making but I'm confident he would not limit them to that arena only: "Nothing is more important in peace-making than that it flows from a deep and undeniable experience of love."

Please name for yourself a person and a place where love and peace are needed: in your family with a neighbor or friend, at work or where you volunteer, with a person or group in your church or your community, someplace in our nation or anywhere in the world. Take enough time to be specific in who and what you name so you can put all I write to the test, "Does this help me?"

In her book, PEACEMAKING, Ronice Branding describes "a journey from fear to love,"

"A journey that goes inward where hearts are disarmed of guilt and fear and outward where relationships are reconciled and bonded and where human systems and institutions are confronted with God's will for justice and peace."

Remember person(s) and place(s) you named (above) and let's see where, with Branding's help,
we can grow from here!

Myron Talcott

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