Good Stewards of the Manifold

The one thing of which you’ll never run out.

1 Peter 4:10                                                                   

As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

We are finite creatures living in the limits of space time.  We can only eat so much, only move so much, and only own so much.  No more.  But… How much can we love?

It seems that even in our ability to love there is a limit.  We can love our family and our friends – but not our enemies.  And yet, Christians are told precisely to do that.  We can love our loved ones with our whole selves, as we may say – but, yet, we do not give of ourselves completely, for we believe that we must keep something in reserve for ourselves.  If we have nothing for ourselves, what do we have to give?  And yet, Christians are told to give the entirety of their beings, the entirety of their lives, to God and so, also, to the loving service of our fellow human beings.  To love the Lord, our God, with all of our hearts, with all of our minds, with all of our strength, and with all of our souls, is to hold absolutely nothing in reserve for ourselves.  But, surely, if we do that, we won’t be able to survive, right?

The wonder and beauty of love is that it is unlimited.  Though we are, most certainly, limited creatures with limited abilities, true love, real love, is purely of God – who is perfectly unlimited.  Because of our flawed nature, we can only open ourselves up so much to the reception of God’s love, which is always and everywhere pouring relentlessly upon everyone.  But, even just a little bit of perfection goes a long way.  It depends upon whether or not we are truly allowing, with the best of our abilities, God’s love to love us.  To move us.  To shape us.  To feed us.  To heal us.  To guide us and guard us.  To revolutionize us.  God’s love is not something that we can own or even hold onto.  God’s love, like the Holy Spirit, flows without ceasing.  You can take a cup of water out of a stream, but, if you do so, that water is no longer a stream.  If we hold on too tightly to the feeling of lovingness, it ceases to be loving.

I would like to feel always the warmth and peace that floods me in the rare moments of deep and grace filled prayer.  However, the moment that I recognize the “feeling” and desire to keep it, the warmth and peace changes into a mere sensation and not the actual goodness of deep prayer itself.  I’ve stolen water from the stream, if you will, and am disappointed to look down into my cup and realize that the stream is not in there.  So, too, with love.  When I love someone – (no, wait, when I am loving someone, for love is not something passive with which I should identify my relationships with certain people, so let me make it clear that love is a verb).  When I am loving someone, God’s love is being received by me and flowing through me to the other.  Love is eternal, so there is no stopping.  Love is infinite, so there is no damming up.

This is why forgiveness is key in Christianity – because Christianity is most fully and completely about the receiving and giving of God’s love.  If someone hurts us, we become less willing to engage in loving that person – and that’s a dam in the flow of divine love.  Only forgiveness can break down the dam and restore the stream.  Perhaps, it’s almost as though the hurt caused by the other leads us to think that we need more of God’s love for ourselves in order to make up for that hurt.  But, of course, we can never receive more of God’s love.  There is only one quantity of God’s love that we are given: all of it.  This is why Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, surrenders his life completely on the Cross.  We are to understand through his sacrifice, and to be reminded by every image of a crucifix, how much God loves us.  Completely.  As I told my nephews when they were very little, Jesus on the Cross is God’s way of telling us, “I love you thiiiis much” – and his hands hold no limit, they are pointing out infinitely.  Our hands, too, must hold no limit, for, if we are truly to be loving, then we must give without ceasing.  It is the flow of love that heals us, that binds every wound, and that gives us the joy and peace that mere survival cannot give.  It is only through the flow of loving that we are fully human, fully alive – that we are fulfilled as the beings that we eternally are: images of God.

May all of us open our minds and our hearts to receive the love of God and, by so receiving, let us all be good stewards and give fully, wholeheartedly, of what we are being given.  Let us give fully to God and not let the fear of the unknown or the limits of mere practicality impede the gift.  This is how it should be.  If what we call love is to really be love, then there can be nothing partial or part-time about it – no stops, no dams.  By allowing God’s love to flow, we become beings who are loving all of God’s Creation, loving every thing, tiny or gargantuan, and loving everyone – because God does.

 

© Christina Chase 2014

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