Why Trust is so stinking important.

Was feeling pretty bad about not knowing how to trust God, and not knowing how to receive love correctly, and wondering what I was going to do about any of it, until I heard a great sermon tonight. A sermon about Abraham. A man who didn't know how to trust or be loved. A man who suffered from depression as a result. A man who did really, really really stupid things as a result. A man who had to learn, just like the rest of us, that God is good, and loves us, and is worthy of our trust. And it took him years, and years, and years.

And not only Abraham, but Moses, and Elijah, and Job, and Gideon, and Jonah, and all the rest. All people whom God had to teach to trust, because they were not taught it. All people who had no idea how good God is and how much He loves them.

The Greatest Weapon in the World

The greatest spiritual weapon in the world is the ability to receive love. This ability makes one impervious to fear, guilt, shame, pride, (the wrong kind), insecurity, etc. Without it, all these other things can grow. Where love is, there can be no fear, guilt, shame, insecurity, etc. Therefore, the ability to receive love is critical. Where love is not, there will be fear, pride, insecurity, shame, etc. (this is only a partial list of the other things that grow where there is no love).

Therefore, the greatest spiritual weapon available to a human being is the ability to receive love. If you don't have it, you must get it! If you have the ability to help someone else get it... give it to them! Being loved is a person's greatest defense in this world. Defend someone today!

The Determing Factor

Here is something that used to not make sense to me. I couldn't understand why it was that I could see no consistency between people's belief in God and their well being or success as a human being. I had always thought that belief and faith in God were the sure ways to go and were the things that would set a person right in this life. I was sure that they were the path of life that the Bible talked about. But, when I looked objectively at people, I did not always see consistency between people's faith and their overall well being as a person.

In other words, I would see people with no faith or belief in God doing wonderfully well in their lives, while seeing people with faith and belief not doing well. And then I would see some who DID have faith in God doing well, while others who had no faith were not doing well. In other words, their seemed to be no direct correlation between a person's faith, or lack of faith, and their well being as a person, either for or against. It all just seemed to be random. Until now. I have discovered the determining factor.

Love is the determining factor. And love knows no theological bounds. It crosses them all. Love occurs in Christians, atheists, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, Paiutes, agnostics... All people have the ability to experience love. And any human being's well being is a direct result of how much love they have received, experienced, lived in, and currently live in! A child of atheists who receives more genuine love than the child of a Christian is going to be better off. And, the child of a christian family who receives more genuine love is going to be better off than the child of athiest who do not love. Theology is not the issue! Love is!

Belief and faith in God are factors in a person's well being, in that they connect them with God, who is love. So they are contributing factors, but they are not the most important factor. The most important, overriding, all important factor for being a human being, is, and will always be, love.