Lord, here is my concern about what we have been talking about lately. Aren’t some folks going to just view it as permission to live however they want, without regard to consequences, since their actions don’t matter in the long run?
I never said their actions don’t matter. I said My Mercy triumphs over all, and all includes all evil. But let Me ask you a question. You have past actions you regret, even now. So are you tempted to repeat them, knowing you will not suffer an eternal punishment? And if not, why not?
Gosh, God, what a question! First of all, from a self-centered point of view, those years I regret, they were miserable and I was miserable. So, no, I would never want to go back there. That was awful. And second, considering the love-based relationship I have with You now, I would not want to do anything deliberate to put any sort of distance between us, and I know myself well enough to know, if I did do something wrong, I would withdraw. And I don’t want anything to interrupt our connection.
Do you recall the story about what happened after Adam and Eve ate the apple, in the story in Genesis?
Sure! They got kicked out of the Garden!
No, before that.
You came looking for them. They were hiding.
So think about that for a minute. Even in that story, Who reached out? Who came calling? I did. And who was hiding in shame? They were. For millennia, people have assumed the Garden was off limits out of My punishment for their sin of disobedience. That is the phrasing that is used. But actually, I led them out of the Garden out of My Mercy. Eating of the “Tree of Life” in that condition of shame would have meant their shame would have become perpetual. Even then, in the earliest of stories, if you read between the lines, a deeper meaning is present. I came calling. I prevented their shame from being perpetual. I made a different way.
What about the curse, then? You will labor to wrest your food out of the ground, and childbirth will be painful as punishment for the woman, all of that? The story says You cursed the ground.
How could I curse the earth, the beautiful earth of My imagining? It is closer to the truth if you read the words to say this–the earth will be cursed because of your actions. Not, I Am cursing the earth as punishment for your actions. I was simply stating a fact, calling out in advance future events I could see would happen. And is it not so? Disease, degradation, pollution, waste, greed–all of these are like curses for the earth, and not one is of My Making or My Choosing.
Oh. OH. Human action would wind up resulting in, to use the phrase, a curse for the earth.
Exactly. And human action can also wind up in great blessing. The choice has always been with each new generation and with each individual. In the story, the very next generation saw fratricide, brother against brother. And is it not so even to this day? You don’t have to believe in a literal first man, first woman, first jealousy, first murder, to see the pattern repeated over and over. And right alongside these patterns, you have patterns of faithfulness, of kindness, of choosing right over wrong. It is always a matter of choice, which is what we started this conversation talking about, personal choice.
Right.
So I ask you again, given what you know now, what do you choose?
I choose You. I choose, best I can, to love You. To love others.
And why is that?
Because Love Is. Because You love me, love us, love all of us. Because I have decided I would rather be a part of the pattern of love than the pattern of hate, and the pattern of peace than the pattern of war, and the pattern of joy than the pattern of unhappiness, particularly causing hate, or war, or unhappiness to others. Or to You. Or to Your heart.
And so, in a tiny way, you help extend My Kingdom on earth. Every act of love, of lovingkindness does. Remember that when you are tempted to be impatient, to give in to impulses other than love. Remember, your strongest motivation, and the best motivation, is always Love. Never Fear.
Yes, Lord. And Lord…thank You. Thank You for being You.