"A Divine Way of Relating"

Dallas Willard continues to amaze me with his teachings.  This time in Renovation of the Heart:

"Love is not a feeling, or a special way of feeling, but the divine way of relating to others and oneself that moves through every dimension of our being and restructures our world for good."
(page 183)
In his footnotes on this (page 264), he attributes this concept to Charles Finney in his Lectures on Systematic Theology.  Who would have thought this thought came from a theology book!  He continues to expound on this by saying, "to most people, to love someone now means to be prepared to approve of their desires and decisions and to help them fulfill them...to love people means to favor what is good for them and to be prepared to help them toward that..."
Willard is simply expressing that love is more determination and action than feeling.  Feelings may be a part of it or a response to it.  But, it seems to be a mental shift in favor for the other person, instead of self centeredness.  

Love is meant to be lived

Compiling the words of the late great Dallas Willard are in Life Without Lack.  His words on love should give us insights to his great mind and heart:

"Love is not just about the things we do.  Love is an attitude of the heart."  (page 164)

"Our aim under love is not to be loving to this or that person, or in this or that kind of situation, but to be a person possessed by love as an overall character of life."  (page 166)

"Love is meant to be lived."  (page 168)

Intentional Love

Thomas Oord in his book, The Science of Love, defines love as "acting intentionally, in sympathetic response to others (including God), to promote overall well-being."
(page 31)

What are you doing intentionally to help others?

Responsibility, Obligation, or Debt

Romans 13:8 is translated in various ways:  the obligation to love one another, sounds a lot like our title, "Responsibility to Love."  Other translations say the debt to love one another.  Another say, owe no one anything but love.  I think we get the point.  It is something we are obligated to do.  It is a debt we can never pay off.  Mortgage yourself to LOVE.  For love is the only thing that will last forever. (I Corinthians 13:8)

Seek ye first...

"Love seeks one thing only:  the good of the one loved."

~ Thomas Merton

What good are you seeking?
Love requires focus.  Love thrives in seeking.  By seeking the best for others, you will find the best for you.  

Love vanishes Uncertainty

"Uncertainty loses its power in the presence of love."

Page 312
Only Love Today
Rachel Macy Stafford

What else can love vanquish in your life?

How Surrendered am I to Love?

Quotes from SURRENDER TO LOVE by David G. Benner:


"Love always contains sparks of divine.."  (page 81)

"Life is love and love is life."  (page 89)

"Love is the fulfillment of everything that makes us human."  (page 91)

"Love is not, first and foremost, something we do.  More basically, it is who we are."  (page 91)

"There is nothing more important than learning love."  (page 92)

"Alan Jones calls the learning go love the process of soul making."  (page 92)

"Learning to love is learning to live."  (page 96)

Let me speak eloquently

"Love speaks the language of the soul."

Page 15
David G. Benner
Surrender to Love

What language are you speaking?  What language do you understand?  What language should you be learning??  

Singing with Love

One of my favorite singers in his movie, The Silence of Music, concluded his life story with this:

“Every life is a wonderful story worthy of being told.

Every life is a work of art, and if it does not seem so,  perhaps it is only necessary to illuminate the room that contains it. The secret is never to lose faith, to have confidence in God’s plan for us, revealed in the signs with which He shows us the way.  If you learn to listen, you will find that each life speaks to us of love.  Because love is the key to everything, the engine of the world.  Love is the secret energy behind every note I sing."  

Thank you Andrea Bocelli!  

Undefeatable

"Love cannot be defeated, for in its very defeat it is victorious."

page 193
E. Stanley Jones
The Christ of the Mount 
A Working Philosophy of Life

What do you have time to do?

Do we really want to love?

Looking for Success or Results?

"The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving."

Missionaries of Charity Sisters
A Simple Path

Are you surrendered?

"All genuine love involves surrender."

page 202
Scot McKnight
The Jesus Creed

How truthful are you?

"Love, for it to work it all, requires truthtelling."

Scot McKnight
The Jesus Creed
page 69

Are you suffering?

"Love always involves binding yourself and your life to another person.  This leads to suffering."

Paul E. Miller
(The Love Course, A Theology of Love for Deeper Discipleship)
1:  Entering the Compassion of Jesus
page 8

Believe!

..." believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” 

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet