THE CAPACITY TO LOVE
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Posted By: Ann Mack on April 21, 2019 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. ~ 1 JOHN 20-21, Message November 23, 2018 The world encompasses a conglomeration of people from various ethnic groups, backgrounds and cultures within a culture with one thing in common, SURVIVAL! Looking for new worlds to inhabit, many people from all over the world come to America in search of the “American Dream” only to learn that it’s not what they thought or hoped it would be! But, what exactly does the American Dream represent; and, does it mean the same thing for everyone? America has been called the land of milk and honey! I assume milk and honey to be opportunity and the good life! However, the same opportunities are not made available and granted to everyone for them to enjoy the good life equally? Yes, based on your perception which is fueled by your experiences, it's possible you may disagree and that's fine! But, is equality valued and demonstrated as much as it should to include ALL people? Especially since the central slogan or ideology in the wake of the current movement is to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! What exactly does that really mean; and, was it ever great and for whom? Depending upon who you ask, the answer can display a very narrow-minded viewpoint laced with a selfish heart and hatred. Why? Because we, human beings, are creatures of habit who are easily influenced by our emotions. Meaning, without rationale, we have a tendency to operate in the moment; but, whether we realize it or not, it ALL catches up to us in the end! And now, you are probably saying, at the end, when I cease to exist, it won't matter! So, why should I care? Because, you will reap what you sow - even at the end! We are products of our environment and more often than not, we tend to mimic what we see rather than doing what we know to be true (or right) in spite of what we see! Everything (and everyone) we encounter or come in contact with to include what we read has the ability to create impactful life EXPERIENCES! These experiences (good, bad, indifferent) can prove to be very challenging in opening and closing doors to our heart! Some experiences are processed without biases and some are not so easily handled in a mature forgiving manner. In fact, the outcome can be more devastating to one than it is to another in altering our way of thinking to distort our perception concerning how we respond and react (operate). That’s why it is extremely important for me to conduct regular and daily self-checks of my heart. No matter the culture, environment or situation, I MUST “always” be willing to carry the “right spirit” in my heart for creating the right attitude to display “love” for and towards others even if it is not shown for or towards me! More often than not, I wonder "HOW?" in attempting to be positive and staying encouraged! Although, it has been known and proven to be true: hurt people hurt people, I MUST, in my brokenness, keep my heart open to love! So, although they slay me, I will TRUST the LORD - at ALL times! On the night of 10/27/2018, my heart was very heavy. The intensity of what is going on around me - all the hate and iniquity - weighs so heavily on my heart! I got little to no sleep as I tossed and turned to get into a comfortable position in between the crying and agonizing thoughts of souls being tormented due to the growing lack of humanity and increasing dark cloud of EVIL moving amongst us and over us! The cruelty in the world is unbelievable! I am truly baffled by it all and afraid at the same time. Afraid that one day, my heart will break and become as seared as those around me! Afraid that with each offense brought against me, I may find it more and more difficult to forgive or to recover. Sometimes, I get so lost in my pain and my compassion for others makes me angry; but, passionate about making a difference not to conform! I think, often, about the children; the innocent, forgiving and vulnerable children! Children who have been targeted for awhile and set up to be abused! Children being separated from their parents as a result of the war on immigration and the growing acceptable culture for doing more wrong than right! There are times when I want so desperately not to think or feel anything to be able to give my heart a rest! And then, I start to think about all of the things that I myself have experienced over the years in the name of cruelty to include people attempting to influence me to adapt to this horrid existing culture. Successfully, I have managed to remain resistive to this type of change! Not “necessarily” a good change; at least not for me! It is a change that would cause me to fit-in, blend and be like the many countless others! A change with the possibility of opening up my chances for a promotion and a greater growth opportunity; but, this kind of win - with the wrong motives and right incentives - would be a compromise to my values, belief and faith! I cannot allow myself to rewrite wrongs in my mind as being right or rights as being wrong when my heart knows the truth as expected of me by God! The price would be too high! As I laid awake that night and as the days passed leading up to today, I sought God for answers! Why was it so easy for many to conduct themselves in such a corruptible manner without giving any thoughts to their actions and the impact to others? Not just the physical pain of wounding the heart and leaving scars, but the possible mental long-term psyche implications of invisible scars! How has it been so easy for me to resist temptation and bounce back from a wounded heart on numerous occasions? Determination? Why is it so easy for others to choose wrong over right? Discouragement? While pondering over these questions, I heard in my spirit, "the condition of the heart! THE CAPACITY TO LOVE! With each conversation or heart confrontation God has with me, HE opens me up to an entirely different inspiring lesson and challenging writing assignment to convey HIS thoughts as it relates to me and everything going on around me! Listening intently to grasp every word or parable to document it correctly, revelation after revelation was being released to give me more hope and clarity about the importance of purpose and being positioned. Pain has its purpose - in accordance to the will of God. Long suffering has its purpose - in ccordancee to the will of God. Being in position has its purpose - in accordance to the will of God. Being purposed and positioned may not always be pleasant or easy, but it is necessary for the mission - in accordance to the will of God. Everyone is not built (equipped) or created for the same mission, but our purpose is as equally important - in accordance to the will of God. We are designed for different assignments and there is a very distinct difference between God's mission and man's work of iniquity to deceive you. According to God, I was purposed to handle pain and positioned to witness each experience on behalf of the LORD and HIS mission. In spite of the irony, as to how that sounds, I thanked God for HIS faithfulness in me to overcome and for setting me apart! I thanked HIM for reminding me of who I was and who HE had created me to be! Obedience is better than sacrifice and each encounter with God draws me closer to Him in feeling good about fulfilling my purpose! When you are able to see (witness) and to experience things for yourself, no one can tell you anything differently; although, they will attempt to convince you otherwise! Mark Twain wrote, "Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.” Many of God's children are hurting and are falling into traps. Based on the number of different creatures on Earth which were named by Adam, human beings are considered to be the most intelligent; BUT, unfortunately, we struggle with not using common sense in how to treat one another with human kindness and decency. We have grown very comfortable in being led by our insecurities and dysfunctionalities while allowing our differences (such as: race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability or genetic anomalies) to create barriers. For some reason, our need for hierarchical structured driven power to lord over one another impacts our mental state of mind (mental health) to hinder our innate ability to shower one another with love. Somewhere down the line, through our mental conditioning and development, we stopped growing and maturing to reason, analyze and understand the destruction and harm we cause to ourselves and others. As referenced by Proverbs 11:17 (AMP), the merciful and generous man benefits his soul [for his behavior returns to bless him], but the cruel and callous man does himself harm. The brain is a very delicate organ and it has the ability to be programmed and reset to fit the desired stage! The manner in which our brain is wired speaks to how information and our experiences are filtered and processed through us to generate thoughts impacted by emotions; such as, pain, fear, joy, happiness, love, hate and peace! Another name for these thoughts is perception and each person's perception is different. In fact, while searching for answers, God said, as human beings, "people unfortunately view everything in color or black and white! But, it is not that simple!" That's why we get so caught up on image. We got stuck on a particular version of Christianity that was perverted by men who were jockeying for power and control. In the process, they inflicted a great deal of deep rooted pain and suffering on others who didn’t fit their idea of a specific image and we are still doing it. If you were to put each image of race, relatively, in a specific column to consider the various issues to expose the damaged layers underneath, what would that look like? And how would those issues or layers overlap? Each and every human being is born with the capacity to love ourselves and others! Some of us, may not be as resilient or mentally capable of rationalizing right from wrong to acknowledge the difference; but, for the most part, we are equipped with the ability to choose! We, unfortunately, refuse to see the underlined issues to understand how one is connected to the other as a significant part of programming to gauge our every move or action. What you think is the problem on the surface is not necessarily the root cause underneath. As one problem arises, we have grown accustomed to hiding it away and dismissing it while hoping it will cease to exist without addressing it appropriately which creates another problem. Then mountains upon mountains of unresolved issues develop as a result of not dealing with the first one. Before long, a domino affect takes hold and there are issues upon layers of issues like tiny little compartments of code inside another code which was never deleted! To get at the TRUTH of a thing, you have to be willing to dig down deep below the layers to get to the root like peeling an onion. The code has to be found, analyzed and rewritten to correspond effectively with the existing language to override the hate. The central problem is, we never ever want to discuss the hate in the world to define it or to call it out to attempt to initiate mutually rewarding and cohesive change! Hate is the opposite of love and you simply cannot address one and not the other to consider the OVERALL impact (on both sides). While listening to a track on William McDowell's artistic masterpiece, Bending of Trees, my SPIRIT was inspired to identify with the following: our struggles or issues are not necessarily because we do not love ourselves (which is self-love from the inside out). In many cases, it is because of a lack of love from the outside in! Our unwillingness to DEMONSTRATE love, one to another to see and appreciate individual EQUAL worth has a very astounding impact and the mirror image is hate. Love is an action! To love is a simple choice! Accountability is also a choice! God sees all and knows all and HE is the ULTIMATE WITNESS who has positioned HIS disciples. Justifications with the aid of manipulated laws as exceptions to the rules are being honored and substituted for accountability, but the truth will always prevail. A nation without God's guidance is a nation without order. Happy are those who keep God's law! (Proverbs 29:18, GNT) Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for (an in) others]. (1 Peter 4:8, AMP, paraphrase) Sincerely, Dr. Ann Gwen Mack If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Ann Mack
Management Analyst, US Department of Energy University of the District of Columbia class of 2002 Member Since May 2008 |
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