God loves.

Have you ever sat in silence, in His presence, simply in wonder of just how much He loves you?

Oftentimes, in my poor attempts to measure, to feel, and to understand the immensity of God’s love for me, I fail. I keep asking why and how I could still be loved despite our differences, despite my weaknesses, shortcomings, and most of all with my difficulty in loving him selflessly in return.

What posture should my heart take on when receiving His love? It’s like being caught in the pouring rain but only being able to catch a few raindrops when each and every drop is mine for the taking. Where do you even start? How do you even start to show your love in return?

Our “good works” and “good deeds” don’t even scratch the surface of the incalculable love that awaits us everyday… Not that they don’t count but they are not everything. We can help the poor, but still not love them. We can give someone a hug, and still not have love be what moves us to do it.

We can give, give, and give back to God all we want, but what we give to Him comes from Him. His love must water our hearts, our lives before it returns to him. Perhaps we may never understand or fathom this love that allows us to live life fully… But we can definitely allow it to transform us from the inside out.

However, while one can give without loving, one can never love without giving.

What we do in silence echo loudly in our actions towards ourselves, others, and God. In our contemplation and reflection of not how much God loves us, but rather how much His love mean to us, the depth of God’s love and existence will no longer frustrate our minds. It will enliven every fiber of our being. It will give us a higher purpose. It will allow us to love better and therefore be better. It will move us.

It begins to make sense then that our most genuine pursuit of God’s plan for our lives is simply, but profoundly the fruit of God’s very love for us. With love, giving becomes as natural as sweating after laboring under the sun. Everything then happens naturally… Though with struggle, everything in the universe will always lead us to where we need to be in life — somewhere, anywhere but always selflessly overflowing with love.

It is more than necessary to believe that we are loved beyond measure. We receive this love with the most heartfelt gratitude and simply extend it to the rest of the world. If we don’t believe we are loved by a most perfect being, how could we ever believe that we are loved by someone who will inevitably fall short of our expectations? How could we ever believe that we are capable of loving someone perfectly without being perfect ourselves? It is in contemplation of His love for us that we as imperfect beings learn to love perfectly. No other way.

With that said, we, with the greatest sense of urgency, need to contemplate from within who God is and just what He means to us — in the most childlike way. From there, we will witness just how much the direction of our lives and our energies depend on it. This must be done not with a flawless understanding, but rather with perfect faith — suspending all logic to simply be certain of everything we hope for.