Loving God
Communicating God's Love
Object:
" 'You should love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38). We have all heard this thousands of times during our journey as Christians. However, if I were to ask you to solely concentrate on loving God, how would you go about it? Is your first impulse to direct your behavior toward acts of loving your neighbor or even loving yourself as a means of loving God? It is true that Jesus said that the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is closely related, but what would it mean to focus purely on loving God?
Probably the first step is being willing to set aside even a small amount of time to direct your attention to God. Think about spending twenty minutes of uninterrupted time contemplating God in a loving way. Actually, it is not so easy to do. First, try it and note your own experience. Then you might want to learn more about what some others have written in this area. Perhaps one of the best is Thomas Merton and the practice of Centering Prayer. What Merton offers is a form of prayer beyond words and thoughts focused wholly on God. It is a powerful way of resting in the presence of God.
While prayer is a central way that we might be loving toward God, another might be receiving God's gift of scripture. If you give a gift to someone you love, seeing them appreciate and make use of that gift brings you pleasure. Especially if you notice that in using that gift, they are directing their attention on you in a loving way. Might it be the same for God who has provided us the gift of scripture?
I've heard of ancient rabbis spending a whole day contemplating a single word of scripture but I'm not sure that is the way to begin. Rather, determine to set aside one half-hour in which you will spend time allowing scripture to speak to you about the attributes of God.
You might want to use a concordance to identify some adjectives that praise God. Gather up several of them and then spend some time exploring the nature of God through these adjectives. That might come in the form of a word study or it might be in the form of contemplation around one or two of these adjectives. Whatever your approach, the purpose is to focus your attention on the wonder of God.
The time limit of one-half hour might even serve the advantage of intriguing you so that you want to set aside another half-hour at another time to continue the experience. Discipline yourself to avoid thinking of how useful your work might be for a sermon, a class, etc. This is time to purely place yourself in the presence of God in a loving way.
Dietrick Bonhoeffer spoke of the psalms as a school for prayer. It is interesting to take seriously that possibility in learning how to spend time loving God. For one of the times that you choose to spend loving God, choose one of the psalms of praise and let it shape your thoughts and words of love for God.
For example, begin with one of the most familiar psalms, Psalm 23. It is so familiar that it is difficult to experience it fresh. Yet it is a very good path to follow as an experience of loving God. Take the psalm and replace the pronouns with your name. "The Lord is xxx's shepherd, etc." Then slowly pray the psalm, without text if possible, stopping regularly to reflect on how each part evokes feelings about God.
Next, replace the words that are meant to speak of God with the second person pronoun. For example, "You are my shepherd, I shall not want." Again, pause repeatedly to note your feelings about God.
Allow the psalm to frame your loving contemplation of God. You could also use other psalms of praise in the same manner. Make it very personal as if you are in direct communication with God.
I am struck with the fact that the language of heaven reflected in the book of Revelation is the language of music. The angels sing around the throne. In some ways, we have always known this as it has shaped our worship. It is generally accepted that the psalms were originally sung prayers.
Music has the particular quality of engaging body, mind, emotion, and spirit in ways that few other actions do. If someone begins to sing words of praise, they are offering love of God with all their "heart, soul, mind, and strength." Particularly for those who have been trained to believe that we cannot sing, I think you will be surprised at the power of the music within you that has been denied over the years. This takes a little courage at first because of our cultural training, but I urge you to privately engage in this with gusto. Sure, this is easier for someone who is naturally a good singer than most of the rest of us, but if God is the audience, perhaps we can trust that the Spirit intercedes with tone corrective power to transform our offerings.
Pull off in an area where you will not be heard by others and engage in singing your love for God. Depending on your musical tastes, it could be a variety of hymns, songs, etc. For a beginning, a couple comes to mind: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" or "How Great Thou Art." Don't worry about your skills, but try singing them out lustfully and note your own experience of offering this as love to God.
You can move from there to creating your own tunes for some of the psalms and see how that works. I suggest Psalm 8 as an interesting psalm with which to begin. Then you can move on to other psalms of praise. If the psalms are our school of prayer and music is one of the languages of heaven, then perhaps pouring your soul out in this fashion can be a way to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
While behavior that reflects the love, justice, and mercy of God toward our neighbor is a way of loving God, too often those actions are so entangled with the dynamics of human relations, that God, at best, becomes a distant observer. Add to that the guilt of our never being able to do enough, or our hunger for human approval or success, and it can even have a negative effect. That is not a reason to cease engaging in such activities but only that we also need to set aside some time on a regular basis to engage in loving God for God's sake.
As we do so, we will discover that it also becomes a means of self-care. Because God knows us, "even before the word is on our tongue," all our attempts at loving God are acceptable. Moreover, as we engage in loving God, we will experience a closeness to God that empowers our capacity to love our neighbors and ourselves more thoroughly.
I am sure there are many others ways to engage in this practice. I would be interested in hearing about your experiences. You may contact me at steve@smccutchan.com.
(Information for this article is drawn with permission from the ToolBox of the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network, www.pastoralcarenetwork.org.)
Stephen McCutchan is a retired Presbyterian minister living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is author of three books on the lectionary (CSS Publishing) one on the psalms (Smyth & Helwys) and one on Matthew (Author House). He also blogs regularly on the Care of Clergy, www.smccutchan.com/blog.
Probably the first step is being willing to set aside even a small amount of time to direct your attention to God. Think about spending twenty minutes of uninterrupted time contemplating God in a loving way. Actually, it is not so easy to do. First, try it and note your own experience. Then you might want to learn more about what some others have written in this area. Perhaps one of the best is Thomas Merton and the practice of Centering Prayer. What Merton offers is a form of prayer beyond words and thoughts focused wholly on God. It is a powerful way of resting in the presence of God.
While prayer is a central way that we might be loving toward God, another might be receiving God's gift of scripture. If you give a gift to someone you love, seeing them appreciate and make use of that gift brings you pleasure. Especially if you notice that in using that gift, they are directing their attention on you in a loving way. Might it be the same for God who has provided us the gift of scripture?
I've heard of ancient rabbis spending a whole day contemplating a single word of scripture but I'm not sure that is the way to begin. Rather, determine to set aside one half-hour in which you will spend time allowing scripture to speak to you about the attributes of God.
You might want to use a concordance to identify some adjectives that praise God. Gather up several of them and then spend some time exploring the nature of God through these adjectives. That might come in the form of a word study or it might be in the form of contemplation around one or two of these adjectives. Whatever your approach, the purpose is to focus your attention on the wonder of God.
The time limit of one-half hour might even serve the advantage of intriguing you so that you want to set aside another half-hour at another time to continue the experience. Discipline yourself to avoid thinking of how useful your work might be for a sermon, a class, etc. This is time to purely place yourself in the presence of God in a loving way.
Dietrick Bonhoeffer spoke of the psalms as a school for prayer. It is interesting to take seriously that possibility in learning how to spend time loving God. For one of the times that you choose to spend loving God, choose one of the psalms of praise and let it shape your thoughts and words of love for God.
For example, begin with one of the most familiar psalms, Psalm 23. It is so familiar that it is difficult to experience it fresh. Yet it is a very good path to follow as an experience of loving God. Take the psalm and replace the pronouns with your name. "The Lord is xxx's shepherd, etc." Then slowly pray the psalm, without text if possible, stopping regularly to reflect on how each part evokes feelings about God.
Next, replace the words that are meant to speak of God with the second person pronoun. For example, "You are my shepherd, I shall not want." Again, pause repeatedly to note your feelings about God.
Allow the psalm to frame your loving contemplation of God. You could also use other psalms of praise in the same manner. Make it very personal as if you are in direct communication with God.
I am struck with the fact that the language of heaven reflected in the book of Revelation is the language of music. The angels sing around the throne. In some ways, we have always known this as it has shaped our worship. It is generally accepted that the psalms were originally sung prayers.
Music has the particular quality of engaging body, mind, emotion, and spirit in ways that few other actions do. If someone begins to sing words of praise, they are offering love of God with all their "heart, soul, mind, and strength." Particularly for those who have been trained to believe that we cannot sing, I think you will be surprised at the power of the music within you that has been denied over the years. This takes a little courage at first because of our cultural training, but I urge you to privately engage in this with gusto. Sure, this is easier for someone who is naturally a good singer than most of the rest of us, but if God is the audience, perhaps we can trust that the Spirit intercedes with tone corrective power to transform our offerings.
Pull off in an area where you will not be heard by others and engage in singing your love for God. Depending on your musical tastes, it could be a variety of hymns, songs, etc. For a beginning, a couple comes to mind: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" or "How Great Thou Art." Don't worry about your skills, but try singing them out lustfully and note your own experience of offering this as love to God.
You can move from there to creating your own tunes for some of the psalms and see how that works. I suggest Psalm 8 as an interesting psalm with which to begin. Then you can move on to other psalms of praise. If the psalms are our school of prayer and music is one of the languages of heaven, then perhaps pouring your soul out in this fashion can be a way to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
While behavior that reflects the love, justice, and mercy of God toward our neighbor is a way of loving God, too often those actions are so entangled with the dynamics of human relations, that God, at best, becomes a distant observer. Add to that the guilt of our never being able to do enough, or our hunger for human approval or success, and it can even have a negative effect. That is not a reason to cease engaging in such activities but only that we also need to set aside some time on a regular basis to engage in loving God for God's sake.
As we do so, we will discover that it also becomes a means of self-care. Because God knows us, "even before the word is on our tongue," all our attempts at loving God are acceptable. Moreover, as we engage in loving God, we will experience a closeness to God that empowers our capacity to love our neighbors and ourselves more thoroughly.
I am sure there are many others ways to engage in this practice. I would be interested in hearing about your experiences. You may contact me at steve@smccutchan.com.
(Information for this article is drawn with permission from the ToolBox of the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network, www.pastoralcarenetwork.org.)
Stephen McCutchan is a retired Presbyterian minister living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is author of three books on the lectionary (CSS Publishing) one on the psalms (Smyth & Helwys) and one on Matthew (Author House). He also blogs regularly on the Care of Clergy, www.smccutchan.com/blog.
