Living Loved

     Too many wander through life unaware that they are loved. There are very few things sadder than not feeling loved. I remember clearly the before and after pictures of people when they fell into a relationship of  reciprocated love. A plain unassuming face became all aglow. Even the plainest faces became beautiful when the people realized they were loved. The instant you saw them, you realized the difference; the change was remarkable. Imagine now, how beautiful inside and out they would have become with this new relationship if they had realized they were loved all along, beauty expanded rather than born. For me, it is sad that such a glow is dependent on the capricious love of another human being.
       All of creation is loved by God all of the time. As you experience God's love on a daily basis you begin to "live loved" (a phrase used by Paul Young in The Shack). There is more joy, more glow, and more power. Knowing you are loved makes you powerful. You walk with a lighter tread. Living loved enables you to live longer and healthier. Living loved gives you the security to have better human relationships as well. When you realize that you are not dependent on another human to love you, then you can love better. You are less needy and more giving. You can eliminate jealousy.  Knowing that you will always be loved helps you be more confident. Confident people make better lovers.
     The difficult part of living loved is believing God is really always loving you. It is easy to say, but how can you know it is real? God seems so non-tangible, the immortal, invisible God. Not surprising, the believing comes first. When you believe in the truth of God's love and invite God into a loving relationship with you, then you begin to feel it. The more you feel it, the more you believe in the reality of God's love, and the more you believe it, the more you feel it. No, it is not simply convincing yourself of the truth of an illusion. For illusions have no lasting effect upon you. However, God's love has a lasting effect; an effect that increases exponentially with the ever deepening experience. I choose to live loved, and I choose to love. It is very real I know; I live in God's love. www.fcccarrollton.org