SoulCare

I am currently in SoulCare Training at my church. Soulcare is a lay-counseling ministry that meets lots of different needs of people within and outside of the church body. Part of our assignment last month was to Read and reflect on the book Love Walked Among Us by Paul E. Miller. I thought I would share my reflections with you.

Here we go:
Interaction Paper
Love Walked Among Us by Paul E. Miller
Submitted by
Angie Bartholomew

A mentor gave me an assignment five years ago. I was to read through all four of the gospels and make observations about Christ: what did he do with his time on earth, who did he spend his time with, what were his feelings, actions and reactions. All this was to be reported in no less than 10 pages. Sounds simple enough, right?

After overcoming my fears, I dove in. My discoveries were more than just an enlightening journey into the person of Christ. I was challenged, convicted and gained a more real picture of God’s heart for his people and purpose in sending his Son.

My mentor did not stop there. I was challenged once again to do the same study every five years; only the follow through of completion was left to my own discipline. She assured me that I would learn new things and be able to apply new principles to my life in new ways.

God is proving just how divine he is by giving me the opportunity to walk through his life here on life through the book Love Walked Among Us by Paul E. Miller. As the author walks the readers through the gospels and brings forward focused scenes of how, when, where, and who Jesus loved throughout his life as well as how he continues to love us today.

God’s real compassion and truth lived out in the flesh on the earth through Christ certainly convicts me of how I walk in relationships. As I see Christ take advantage of moments in time to look, to feel, and help in order to show love, I am drawn to thoughts of how others have lived this out in my own life. Many people in my life have taken time out of their own lives or been inconvenienced to show me Christ’s love. I also thought of how I may have tried to do this for others, and then I thought of how others could have done this for me. Now, hold on. I have many more paragraphs, and the future holds hope and conviction of my selfishness and pride.

Miller brings forward a clear picture of what God sees as compassion and love. More clearly, I was able to see how Jesus took advantage of teachable moments for the disciples, how he loved by deliberately pausing in order to focus on the person in front of him even when he was obviously being interrupted. Jesus did not show prejudice; the person in front of him may have been hurting, suffering, or wildly prideful and full of themselves. Jesus knew exactly how to love that person in order to introduce them to the freedom and hope that he came to ultimately offer to us all. As for my own pride, I learned that an attempt to love can be wrecked when humility is absent. Humility is impossible for me sometimes. I want to be right, but Christ did not allow his position to keep him from loving others. Class and prestige are not criteria for his love and forgiveness.

As I read more through the book I began to realize just how bankrupt and selfish I was. There was a moment that I realized that I could not love the way Christ loved, so freely, patiently, and without reserve. I began to ask the question, “How am I supposed to do this?”

The answer came clearly in focus in the last half of the book. I have to go to God empty, tell him my needs, my inability to love. He will show us how to love and gives us the power to love. Through faith I can admit my failure, pride, weaknesses and my inability to God. This faith, “requires us to stop trusting in our own resources and wait for God to provide (love for others) once we’ve emptied our pockets.” He gladly comes to me and offers the same love and forgiveness that he did while on earth.

At the moment that I realize my own devastation and emptiness that is present in my own life and how God offers all that I need to replace the hole, I am then able to understand more clearly how much God wants to offer this love to others. When I am fully aware of his love, I am able to see what Baille calls the effects of our separation from God: the sense of deadness, of alienation, of profound loneliness, of cosmic emptiness, in others.

I understand that we sometimes associate feelings of loneliness with our current circumstances, but actually it is intimacy with our Heavenly Father that we are ultimately longing for. I am comforted by this description of the hope of what intimacy with our Father offers, “when oneness is restored, joy returns.” As if nothing else matters than knowing that God truly loves me and is taking care of me. This joy and oneness comes by staying connected with the Father.

I am reminded that we must trust his offering of love and believe in his communication of sacrifice in order to love others without reservation. By believing and trusting in Christ our fears, reservations and inability to love will no longer hold us captive. We will no longer love others on our own. We are allowing God to love others through us. We can offer his life-giving love, forgiveness, and hope to hurting and dying hearts, all the while applying great doses of his offerings to our own hearts.

To close, I feel that this quote from the book summarizes what I have learned. “Love is what you do on the journey. Faith is how you make it through the journey. But hope is the end of the journey. Without hope, love makes no sense.” By connecting with the Father, I will understand this in my own heart, and then I will be able to offer the same to others around me through the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit.