Exercise Three: Love well!
Mar 31, 2021 08:00 · 2423 words · 12 minute read
I greet you very warmly from poland and we are in the process of our lantern retreats and the theme of this year retreat is how can we find peace of god in our troubled times how can we get the peace of god in our troubled times so how to keep god’s peace in traumatic situations or just in difficult everyday events during our retreat this year we go to saint paul who writes to us in his letters that each of us can learn peace of heart it is not something inherent or meant for the special group and a christian can learn it each one of us can learn the peace of god this is the nature of christian peace that inner heart balance awareness of god’s presence and a sense of his all-encompassing protection we can be we can learn it and be aware of it so how can we learn god’s peace or how to find god’s peace in our troubled times saint paul gives us three exercises as we heard the first exercise was to keep god’s peace with yourself it was thinking about god and his things his deeds and words the second exercise was thanking god for everything what we get in our lives thank you for the easy and pleasant moments and also for the difficult ones and the third exercise this one that we are in right now for keeping god’s peace in our hearts in our lives is putting in order all our loves that means this is the exercise in love it is about maintaining a proper hierarchy in love because the answer to this question what and whom we love first and most in our lives is crucial essential for our decisions actions but also well-being and peace of god in our hearts so love it is impossible not to talk about it when we are looking for a way to keep god’s peace for god is love naturally then the peace that comes from god is related to love and especially to his love in his letter to the philippians paul calls us so that we do not just tidy up our thoughts and minds but also took care of our hearts desires it is not always easy to manage your own heart but in order to have god’s peace in the heart it is worth taking this exercise it is very important to love the right things as well to love the right things saint paul in the colossians says let the peace of christ control your hearts the peace into which you are also called in one body and be thankful let’s ask ourselves what is not worth loving too much one should not love success too much because even if it is achieved one will always have the fear of maintaining that success we have the the different situations with the pop stars you know they have to keep the top um all the time so they get distressed how we can keep our peace in our times he will never know peace because he will be afraid to lose it what he achieved those who put achievement as the first in the hierarchy of love so one should not be too related to the body as well his appearance or her appearance although it is good to take care of ourselves but always in the modern way saint paul clearly states for the flesh has desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh these are opposed to each other so that you may not do what you want if we devote our full attention to the body during the day and if we first listen to the body and fulfill its needs only we will follow it and in this way we will get into great anxiety great fear because we will quickly find out that the body is getting older it’s changing how then to build something permanent on it how can only the body be the source of human strength and inner peace you can allocate your source of peace in your body but it’s not the good place to to fight an inner peace likewise do not give yourself wholeheartedly to other people even to your family for even having a wonderful family we will always worry about them we will always be afraid that something will happen to them and if something bad happens we will be devastated this is obviously very difficult you should love your loved ones very much but in order to have inner peace we have to have the right hierarchy of our loves that’s why god gave us the greatest commandment and it is to love god but listen to this to love god with all your hearts with all your strengths and with all your souls and your neighbors yourselves yes you should love your loved ones always being aware that somebody or someday being aware that someday they will die or go away we just have them for a certain period of time so no man nor husband no wife no children no man cannot be the first source of our strength of our inner peace a close a loved one is not someone in whom i confirm my life my worth i clothe a close loved one this is not a tap with water from which i pour myself daily life-giving healing water i pull from him or her this water whenever i want because otherwise i won’t survive i’m not giving to have a good day or week no it’s not so you can’t rely fully on your loved ones this is not what a close loved one in our lives is for because one day the life-giving water flies his her words of support good mood are gone or we don’t hear them and this is normal however it is good when we do not expect anything from another person we do not expect anything from my husband wife’s kids but remember it is not at all that we do not require anything from them it’s not just that you don’t ask your husband to take out the rubbish take the kids to school it’s not that but this is about the attitude of the heart you don’t burden your close ones with the heavy expectations because you can’t kill them we set up a relationship with people with husband with wife friend close person in this the way that we want to give them first we want to be servant and not that we stand and wait until he she will fill with love the world for us the day with love for us no when we have god in our hearts when we love god then the first thing that comes to our mind in a relationship is that we want to give this good and love to our loved ones to other people from morning until night and we lose nothing by giving the contrary we gain we gain by giving when we love god first we want to share the beauty that lives within us that lives within us when we love god first we want to share the love that lives within us when we love god first we want to share the good that lives in us there are the philosophers the they call them stoics they said that the source of the problem was love of things love of things over which you have no control if a man loves a thing and something happens to this thing he is devastated and lost therefore they argued one should really love nothing but owns virtue however the stoics were wrong because it is wrong to think that men’s virtue is under his control we also have no control over our character and we cannot be sure that we will always be noble saint augustine rejected this approach of the stoics as unsustainable instead he claimed that only to love what doesn’t change can bring peace only to love what doesn’t change can bring peace what cannot change is unchanging our virtues can and will change just like a professional career family good lag will change things will change we ourselves are changing the reason why we don’t experience peace is because we love too much things that change things which unfavorable circumstances can deprive us of paul teaches us that there is one thing one person which is unchangeable it is god his presence and his love the only love that gives god’s lasting peace is a love that cannot change which cannot be lost which is not based on the ups and downs of life and god is such love even death cannot take god’s love and god from us no life experiences our mistakes flaws can’t stop god’s love and the worst circumstances in life even sudden death make us sometimes experience more of this love god’s love what is in the world and in life so sure and constant that even death cannot move it only can strengthens it god’s love and presence god’s beauty god’s face god’s providence that is love and wisdom this is stable and certain that is why saint augustine could say this there is only a resting place in god that will not be disturbed there love is not abundant if it does not go away on its own only we can cut off ourselves from god god never will cut himself off from us we live in an eternal covenant everlasting love of god for every one of us does this mean that we are to love only god in our lives no absolutely not we are to love god but also as best as possible to love our family loved ones also your work success things in life yes but to have god’s lasting peace within us we need to sort out our loves we need to put in order our loves and constantly on a regular basis putting love in order it could be our prayer putting our loves in proper order our problem is not that we love our family of our career too much but that proportionally compared to them we love god too little this is the ultimate way to find peace peace and balance we must give god the highest love the highest place in our hierarchy of love if you live for something else and love something else more than god your life will always resemble a rough sea and he will feel lost and without peace if we love anything more than god we will always fear about this thing and have a lot of anxiety in us god says the natural consequence of turning your back on me the natural consequence of not focusing your entire life on me is deep anxiety and now we can ask how can we feel bigger love bigger love for god let’s allow dear brothers and sisters our emotions flow naturally from what we are looking at what we are experiencing let’s allow our emotions to flow out what we live with what we focus on if we live intensely with the things of the lord if we thank him our love for him will deepen jesus replied the first commandment is this here for israel the lord our god is lord alone you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with your soul all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and let us recall the words of saint paul the peace of god that surpasses all understanding it will keep your hearts and your minds in christ jesus many people cultivate this love very beautifully to god as the first and most important in life there was a german writer nicholas zinzendorf he converted to christ seeing in the studio a painting depicting christ being crucified with the caption at the bottom this i have done for you and what have you done for me looking at this picture crucifixion and reading this passage at the bottom he converted he then founded a colony of bohemian brothers and later the widespread mission and spent his entire life in intense spiritual activity saint paul apostle was a convert tool we can say and he so loved the lord that he wrote in his letters for me to live is christ and to die is gain and as we remember king david so much loved god that he was filled with his presence and he felt his closeness day and night he wrote in the psalm when i wake up i am still with you even at night my heart teaches me i have the lord always before me when he is at my right hand i will not falter this is psalm 139 verse 18.
you can’t just go home and try abstractly love god we need to look at jesus who is and who was and who will be we need to look at what he has done for us for me it’s not just a general focus on god but by looking at the person and work of christ we kindle our love for what is changeless and we can find peace we can learn peace we look at what jesus has done for us because that is how you can see the irresistible beauty of god and his love towards you and an exercise for you and me from this conference say or write your own prayer today prayer drink which you tell god that you love him very much say it or write it in your own words tell him through writing or through speaking that you love him with your own words based on your experience on your life thank you very much for being so patient thank you for listening to this conferences and this retreat this year that the title was how can we find peace of god in our troubled times i wish you a wonderful easter season and a wonderful celebrations during a trideum and may god bless you and all the best to you have a peace peace of god be with you the lord be with you may he blesses you father and the son and the holy spirit go in the peace to love and serve the lord you.