A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all men, women, and children. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. Brene Brown
Love and belonging is what we seek. And when we fail to experience love, we fail to experience being. We become broken, lost wanderers in a wasteland of desperation, impatience, entitlement, greed, addiction, and emptiness. Our substitutes for love forever fail to fulfill, and we flounder.
Conversely, when we experience intimacy with another, we are struck by something beyond ourselves. It is if the energy of being itself suddenly takes hold of us and carries us helplessly toward the other. The woman who you will one day propose marriage in hopes of even greater intimacy. The baby who did not exist one year ago but now inexplicably interweaves itself into your soul. The best friend who gets you.
Your best friend gets you because she gets you. Your presence. She is privileged to know you intimately and loves you deeply. With her you have trust and vulnerability and peace. You have being.
But how do we find love? Where can we discover belonging? Especially in a world where everyone wants to take and no one wants to give?
The answer comes to us as we review the last six episodes of Awestruck, where we see Jesus revealing the culmination of all of the Old Testament Law and Prophets – in him. In his life. In his words. In his actions.
And as Jesus weaves together the entirety of the Old Testament into a living portrait of himself, what we see in that portrait is divine love. We see a God whose sole purpose is to bring us into perfect union with him and with each other.
Source Scripture
See episodes 71-76
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
By putting obedience before listening, one may be reserving the option of making due with mere performance even as one commits one’s self in words that carry the vitality of aspiration, one is flinching from the radical demand of those very words. Aviva Gottlieb Zornberg
Commitment. We all have our various means of desiring to change, choosing a path of transformation, and then mustering the will to follow-through.
Often we turn to ritual, contract, or other form of pledge that marks the moment our new journey begins to assert that we will, in fact, do what we say we will do. We make New Year’s resolutions, buy gym memberships, or announce our goal to family and friends to hold us accountable.
This longstanding approach – longing for change, choosing a methodology, and then attempting to seal the commitment – is fraught with tenuous threads that cannot hold the weight of our convictions.
Transformation rarely occurs without first immersing ourselves – our souls – in truth. We first listen. We drink deeply of the divine until truth overwhelms us within, prompting action without as in inherent by-product.
Today we take a journey backwards from our written, verbal, and internal vows that we will change until we arrive at the wellspring of transformation. From here, we can journey back to the surface, taking with us the boon that eliminates the need for empty promises and giving us – and others – the real power we need for change.
Source Scripture
Connect
Twitter: @AwestruckPod
Email: info@awestruckpodcast.com
Extras
The Awestruck Podcast musical playlist
(Apple I Spotify)
Recommended Reading
The Hidden Order of Intimacy by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg