How is your Soul?

   I have calmed and quieted my soul,

           like a weaned child with its mother;

      my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

                                      — Psalm 131.2

When I was a child, my father offered my sister and I one dollar for every A and fifty cents for every B reported on our report cards.  (We could actually buy something for a few dollars in those days.)  His generation had suffered through the Depression and World War II, and raised their families to value hard work.  

My parents never talked about their love for us; they wanted the best for us, and steering us to success was their way of loving us.  They thought we would understand this, and I do now, but it also left me with the idea that my father’s love was conditional on our performance. 

That is not the kind of love that our heavenly Father offers us, is it?  “He loves us”, as Rev. Paul Beckingham reminds us, “because he loves us, because he loves us”...no other reason…unconditionally.  This unconditional love is one of the things that allows us to calm and quiet our souls in his presence.  We don't have to perform in any way to be loved by him, simply rest.

This Sunday, we welcome back Rev. Beckingham to worship with us, and he will reflect on God's amazing love for us. 

I hope to see you there!

Susan 

1 John 2:28-3:10 NRSVUE

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming.

If you perceive that he is righteous, you also know that everyone who does right has been born of him.

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love a brother or sister.

Holy One,

like a mother with her newborn infant,

you do not demand anything of me,

but purely love me, for my own sake.

I am born of you; I am like you,

made of your loving kindness.

Your unseen, immutable truth

is alive in me.

No matter what happens to me

I am in your arms.

No matter what I do

you are in me.

My soul is at peace.

I can become your love in the world.

I rest in your arms. - Steve Garnaas-Holmes, www.unfoldinglight.net