Love Unbounded

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Taken from:  Henry Hesse, Wendell Krossa and Bob Brinsmead discussion

 I happen to believe that this real unconditional accepting love affects positive outcomes in more ways than could be imagined. Is this what Jesus had learned and taught and lived? How can anyone make a religion out of that? And how could rational thought ever come up with such "different thinking?"

The occasional "flash" I refer to is the unconditional accepting love of the Father and what that really means when the rubber hits the road here, in all the facets of this life of ours.

Wendell Krossa

And how to get this ("unconditional accepting love affects positive outcomes") into the larger human narrative- this unconditional love that isthe essential core of all reality. And watch its power to transform leaven through consciousness. And yes, it is  a thing of spirit and has never really been organizable (not to deny any of the forums, organized or not, that have promoted such a spirit).  

Your comment, Henry brought various things to mind. In the midst of darkness what do we re-center ourselves around? Everyone has something they personally employ in this regard. Some don't and flounder in darkness. I am currently involved with a situation of a person apparently depressed. I say apparently because I don't know if it is actually clinical or other. And it is not just this one person (in another sense many are 'depressed' by the world economic situation and the fear things are going to get worse).  

Martin Seligman, as respected an authority as any, believes depression is from faulty thinking and changing one's thinking can relieve depression and whatever brings darkness to consciousness. Julian Simon proved this in changing his thinking about environmental issues and the real state of the world. 

So how powerful is this realization that unconditional love and scandalous generosity are at the core of all reality? That infinite goodness is the core of the universe. And consequent to this being the heart of all reality, life is on a trajectory of endless improvement and progress upward toward something better. 

Getting this core of the narrative of reality right, will this help with all the mundane issues people wrestle with in daily life? Issues of freedom (granting others full freedom knowing there is goodness behind all), of generosity (knowing there is always lots more for everyone). Will this core narrative of unconditional help lessen conflict as people understand the generosity behind all? Conflict often arising from a sense of scarcity and potential loss. 

Unconditional love, generosity, goodness- all truths worth centering around
in difficult situations, and dark times. It is something to consider and
explore.

Bob Brinsmead

Suppose someone you have no regard for abuses you and calls you all sorts of names, then it might give you more pleasure than a string of compliments. right?  But supposing it was your own son who said these things to your face, then it is going to hurt you real bad. All human experience and history demonstrates that whilst love is free and unconditional, it is not cheap because it brings all the more suffering. In some ways the Christian message comes very close to this and almost carries through with it, but then at a very crucial point, it drops the ball and goes off in a different tangent that winds up misrepresenting the free and unconditional nature of God's love. 

It is all somewhat like the NT insight that God's word is not found in a book, in a ritual, in an institution, in a religious system etc, but God's word is revealed in human flesh. Jesus articulated this when he said, You (plural) are the light of the world, meaning according to the whole context of Matthew 5, by the way you treat even your enemies and those who hate you, by the way you endlesssly forgive and give hoping never to get it back, you reveal just what your Abba Father is like.  And even Paul in 2 Corinthians says that the new testament is not something that can be written with ink in a book but rather, You as a Christian community are God's new testament epistle to be seen and read of all men.  Yes, the NT message comes very close to it - but then it veers right off by turning the religious Iconoclast into the new Icon, makes of him the exclusive word of God, making him out to claim, "I am [the exclusive] light of the world."  

Yes, go with that NT theme of "God with us" - but not "with us" only in the sense of "with us in One person."  If we would grasp this, we would not go to church and keep endlessly repeating every gory detail of Jesus' death, reminding God of it, reminding ourselves of it millions and millions of times without end - I sat there recently in a certain church seeing and listening to the flock go over all this, and I thought about the millions of people doing it week after week for century after century (as they will keep doing in heaven forever???) and I could not help imagining Jesus saying, "I'm tired of hearing this over and over again...it is time you went out and thought about some other people's suffering for a change, and seeing the love of God in the whole arena of human existence." 

Of course human history and the whole process of the formation of life on this planet has been pretty gory at times - but we believe it is true that God has been intimately envolved in this process of suffering, patient love.  If this is true, then God has paid a very heavy price for creative love and that sin and evil really hurt - not that God is saying, Look how much it hurts me, but simply, be human and be aware that evil really hurts people. I know that David prayed, Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and have done this evil [adultery and murder], but I say, David, you are just dead wrong!  You did this evil to Uriah and his wife, you did it to your people. Stop and think of all this wretched hurt you have caused.  How could you be so inhuman to do this to other people!