Jumping in Front of Trains

Atheist, agnostic, and seeking friends of mine -- thought for you -- is there someone that you would jump in front of a train to save, if you knew that it would cost you your life? I can think of several people in my life that I would do this for -- family members and also friends. 

Willingness to sacrifice our lives for others points to the reality and the superiority of love in our universe. Self-sacrificial love is a problem for the notion that our own survival is the sole reason for our existence. Self-sacrificial love makes perfect sense in a universe that was created by a God that IS love. 

Art always reflects the artist, so our universe makes sense when love is the ultimate purpose of life, as this is the reflection of a God of love. In a universe with love as the ultimate purpose, you will experience joy and peace when you're living in alignment with God's will to live a sacrificial life of love for others. In a universe with love as the ultimate purpose, you will experience loneliness, restlessness and an insatiable desire to consume when you're living a life selfishly seeking love for yourself. 

Would you jump in front of a train to save someone? That's greater than living. That's God in you. That's love.

Love Your Neighbor... Good Enough?

Why do we need to love God? A pretty basic question, I know. But I've been thinking "What's to say that a life of commitment to simply following the Golden Rule of love your neighbor as yourself" isn't good enough?

We need to love God, because God is love. It's simple, but profound. We need to love... love.

Let me try to explain why I think this is important.

If we don't put love first in our lives, someone or something else will become "first" that we will love. Everyone has someone or something that is "first" in their life. It's impossible not to.

But why do we need to define love? Because there are a lot of things that masquerade as love, that aren't love (co-dependent relationships, lust, sexual flings, etc.)

Let me say this another way. There are a lot of things that masquerade as God, that aren't God. (power, pursuits of wealth, political structures).

Cutting out God and just saying "we'll love others" isn't as easy as it sounds because there is a lot of smoke and mirrors in our world that redirect our intentions of loving others into diluted forms of love at best, and self-serving forms of love at worst.

Side note: I get why some people would want to cut out God and just seek to "love others" -- because religious can be ugly and complicated are a couple of reasons. But let's not throw the baby out with the dirty bathwater...

Those who seek to live a life of loving others will find the best way to achieve this is to seek God because God is 100% pure love. We seek to imitate God because there is no better goal in life than to love others with a pure love.

When Jesus was asked by a religious person what the most important religious law was, he told him: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’"

Loving your neighbor is LIKE loving God -- but it's NOT loving God. We still need to put God first over others SO THAT we can be our best in loving others.

How to Community

Whereas Christians often define their faith primarily as a system of beliefs, Jews see doctrine or belief as only one - and not the most important - of several elements constituting the essence of Judaism. In the words of the Jewish scholar Nicholas De Lange, "To be a Jew means first and foremost to belong to a group, the Jewish people, and the religious beliefs are secondary, in a sense, to this corporate allegiance." This deeply rooted biblical emphasis upon folk -- that is, the group -- is underscored by the fact that most Jewish prayer employs the whole community."  One of the best-known biblical prayers expresses this communal factor in it's opening words: "Our Father in heaven." In the words of an old Hasidic saying, "A prayer which is not spoken in the name of all Israel is no prayer at all." Jews have taken seriously the teaching that everyone is his brother's keeper (Gen. 4:9). Thus, each senses a responsibility for his neighbor's shortcomings and needs. Indeed, no one lives in total isolation from his neighbor.
-Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith

Is there anything more beautiful than a community loving one another and supporting one another? In contrast, one of the ugliest things in life is segregation. One of the most beautiful aspects of Christianity is when we live out the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbor as ourself (and "neighbor" was anyone and everyone - humanity - i.e. the story of the good Samaritan).

When a community gathers around the teachings of Jesus, we not only share beliefs, but we share LIFE with each other -- ups and downs -- riches and poverty -- and by being involved in each other's lives we will NATURALLY take care of each other. We don't have to compare doctrines and beliefs when you genuinely love someone and invest in their lives. God never intended faith to be complicated -- therefore when we simply "love one another" we are "fulfilling the law" of God. God is love - therefore God IS a relationship (in the most supernatural, mind-bending, mysterious sense) - so when we do relationship we are imitating God. Beautiful!