Two Great Commandments plus One!

The greatest commandment is love and everyone nows that by now, though not everyone does it per se. Anyways, at least we know. Ok. But then one more struggle is understanding the objects of the love. Who do I love and how much? Can I really love everyone equally? What about the unloveables? Of course there are people that no matter how much you try to love them they keep resisting your love. The greatest teacher of divine truths of all time, Jesus of Nazareth taught when asked, What is the greatest of the commandments? He said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might, and the second is like it; love your neighbor as yourself. There are two directions right there. One is directed to God and no one seems to have much trouble with that because God is invisible and we can say we love Him when we really don't. Hmmnn! It is the receipient of love that can really attest to the genuineness of our love. So God is the only One who can tell how much we really love Him and care about Him. The other is directed at the neighbors; Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no hiding place with that. We can tell right here and now if we truly from our hearts love our neighbors as ourselves. Further questions with that is usually, who is my neighbor then? Is it someone with whom I share something in common? We do not always need to be told that, it seems the most natural thing to do, we easily love and act kindly towards people that share something in common with us; same parents, same cultural background, same religious affiliation and the list can be numerous. We do not ask, who is my neighbor in order to know who to love but usually in order to know who not to love. We try to relief ourselves by cutting down on the extent of the expectation to love; cut down on the list of people that can be loved. The Greatest Teacher however, showed us that it is anyone in the image of God called human for whom we can be responsible to provide any kind of care and support. Remember 'the Good Samaritan'? Even those who go to church once a year will know it including those who do not go to church at all. The neighbor is the guy lying there in need regardless of his color, race, socio-economic status or even his religious status. Shocking, isn't it?
Well, we often view this commandment as two but we leave out the third which is the standard for the second. You cannot obey the second command without it! You get what I'm talking about? Yourself! You will love your neighbor as yourself. There goes out the third command; Love yourself. If you do not love yourself, you cannot know how to love your neighbor as yourself. There is an assumption in that command that every normal person will love themselves without a command to do so, based on the selfish nature of man. It is important to bring it out however, due to the lack of love for self that some have displayed in history of mankind. If a person can commit suicide, then he can kill anyone. He does not like himself, so he can hurt another. You can't love others if you do not have love for yourself. Do you really love yourself? Good question. Slow down a little bit and consider how many times you have done things that you know quite well is not good for you. Eating stuffs you know won't help your body. Going to dangerous places and you keep asking yourself, What are you doing here? Yet, you drove there by yourself. You are training yourself how to treat others by how you treat yourself. Check out the golden rule for a moment; Do unto others as you want others to do unto you. What do you want to be done unto you; even if it is not done unto you, do it to others because if you were in their shoes you would want it.
If you are struggling with loving others, may be you have a problem loving yourself. That may be a starting point for you. What are your thoughts like towards yourself? What are your expectations for yourself? What are your motivations for yourself? How do you encourage yourself unto greater heights? How do you dress and address yourself? What are your aspirations in life? What kind of relationship do you wish for yourself? Are you one of those who do not expect anything good from life?
When you love God with all your hearts, He changes you from inside out so you can love yourself as He loves you; then you can go on to love others, doing unto them and thinking towards them what you desire for yourself learned from what He desires for you.
Enough of self pity and over dependence on others to determine your existence, begin yourself. Your life is not defined by the view of you by others, the greatest definition of you is yours. Be your own best friend, greatest counselor and sweetest companion. You can't have a better friend than yourself. Do what you must do because you can only give what you have. If you don't have love flowing in you, it can't flow through you.Someone is waiting to be loved by you, and the standard to use is how much you got of love on the inside.
Love you.
Felix

This Love Thing!: Falling in Love or Rising in Love

She's so excited. Everyone knows something has happened to her. Never has she been this 'all smiles'. Singing and obviously very happy. Nothing anyone does really matters to her now. You can't hurt her, neither can you make her more happy than she really is right now. Her friend could guess something, 'There's somebody, right?' she asked her. The smiles she gave in reply and the look on her face says it all. It is not something but somebody that happened to her. He is the best guy in the world. Nothing from his past would mean a thing now. No comments about him will change anything. She has really fallen in love.
How many times have people fallen in love and they do it over and over with different persons at different times. How would you call this 'butterfly in the belly' kind of feeling that shuts down practically your reasoning faculty. Objective thinking is postponed until a return to the world of reality. Or let's say it continues until they 'rise in love' to discover it was not real after all.
It seems like time, as it passes saps away all the buzzling and the tingling and chops off the butterfly's feather that was once burning within. Once the best guy in the world now turns the most dirty pig she's ever seen. Her angel of those days is now the worst bitch or witch ever. Where has gone all the 'love thing'? One wonders.
Guys and girls should know by now that this thing called love deserves a different name. May be we'll call it lust, infatuation or whatever. Even if you choose to call it love still, it must be a kind under construction. It is not the real one, not original, not enduring. It is ephemeral and too temporal.
Understanding that the emotions of love is not love in itself. Emotional love is not one on which you can build any lasting relationship. Emotions of whatever sort do not last. It fluctuates back and forth. It is grossly unreliable. The next time you check and find that all there is to that relationship you are about starting is the 'butterfly in the belly', then wait a while or just let it go all together.
What you need is a volitional love. Yes, that is the 'rising in love' rather than falling in love. Loving the person with your will not your feel. This willing love is called commitment. It is a reasonable love. It does not fail. It considers other more than just the self and what it can get right now. Volitional love goes ahead to love with an awareness that this person may is not perfect and may hurt me, yet I will love him all the same.
That is the love that can outlast feelings and emotions. When the emotion is gone, the volitional love keeps going. It is a love by choice not by chance. It is deliberate love not accidental.
There it is, love without limit. Love with long life. Everyone wants it but few gets it. It is God's kind of love.
Other kinds of love says I love you because...but Agape, God's kind says, I love you.
Cheers!
Felix

Broken Hearts: Same Cause, same Cure!

Many people are walking whole, but sitting pieces, sleeping pieces and living broken! Broken from the past, battered in relationships. They make quick decision to shut their hearts and become hyper-sensitive to opening their hearts ever again to anyone, anyone at all. However, it is naturally ordained that though relationship caused it, relationship cures it. How on earth can one thing serve both as cure and cause? The reason is obvious here; one hand pushes you down, it takes a hand to bring you up again.
Any auto crash victims will still have to be taken for rescue, and the earlier another auto mobile is available the better for the rescue. That is it! Shutting out won't help it. No one keeps warm alone! You need another to warm you up and when you fall, to lift you up. It's so amazing! The power of relationship! It can break as much as make. It can hurt as much as heal.
For past victims of rape, broken relationship, incest, disappointment and jilt; learn the lesson, move on ahead to enjoy the blessing. Allow friends into whose arm you can fall so you do not hit the ground and crash. The past is an event that 'came to pass', you are not that event, you left it behind. The problem is many do not forgive the past nor themselves. You can't keep yourself in that chain for ever. Even God doesn't want you in that cage! Why? There lies ahead of you a great future yet unlived! You can't jeopardize that for an event that is not written on you. Some will rather than recover from the past wants to retaliate it! Raped lady wants to become a rapist lady or prostitute herself! Jilted girl will want to go for multiple relationship! They seem to want to outdo the evil past by overwhelming it with much greater evil. You cannot cheat life, you are cheating yourself! It comes back to you. Someone will even dare to take their own life like the world is empty of goodness!
There is always a shoulder out there waiting to receive you into its embrace. One that will love you and you will forget you were ever jilted! A virgin mouth is waiting out there to kiss you as you are yet with eyes closed; without deceit!
The real question here now is where those real people, those great relationship physicians who will give the healing touch for these broken hearts?
It is time to recover from the broken hearts. Time to move on ahead with life. You can live it right again. The person that broke your heart simply have problem knowing what is good. There is someone out there who will make you their goddess.
There it is, you were brought low by relationship, another relationship is right ahead, waiting to pick you up!
CHEERS!