Love is the single most important aspect of Christian living.   It is the heart of faith - love for God, love for others, and love for self.   Love is the context by which we walk our life journeys.   It is the light by which we navigate.   This concept is so simple, yet unpacking all the implications of living in an attitude of love will last more than anyone's lifetime.   Mother Teresa said, "We can do no great things - only small things with great love."   But how do we live and relate and make choices based on love?

The Jewish tradition points to two great commandments:   "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" and "Love your neighbor as yourself!"   Jesus added a new commandment:   "Love one another as I have loved you."   While love is the foundation of faith, we live our lives in the tension of stewardship and Sabbath.

Stewardship is how we use the gift of life.   It is how we live and invest ourselves and how we use our life gifts.   Each of us has a certain wealth of talents, passions, possessions, and experience to use.   In economic terms, stewardship is the supply side approach to living -- how we use our gifts and for what ends.

Sabbath is letting go.   It is turning loose the control of our lives in order to be present to God.   It is the opposite of striving for something.   Sabbath-living is based on trust.   It is possible only in the context of absolute love and unwarranted forgiveness.   Fr. Richard Rohr described Sabbath in terms of such forgiveness:

One could say that among the most powerful of human experiences is to give or to receive forgiveness.

1. When we forgive, we choose the goodness of the other over their  faults;
2. We experience God's goodness flowing through us; and
3. We also experience our own goodness in a way that almost surprises us.

That is an awesome coming together of power, and we know it is a power bigger than our own.                                                                                                   (Fr. Richard Rohr, Hope Against Darkness, pp. 141, 143)

We need both the striving and the surrender.   Most of us living in the United States probably need to practice the surrender, the Sabbath, more than the striving.   This is because our cultural context is so geared toward achievement.   To practice stewardship is to embrace our own identity - who we are at the core of our being - and to live fully as ourselves.   To practice Sabbath is to let go of that very identity.   It is to open ourselves to the unity of all of life and be part of the one.   Stewardship is to be all that we can be.   Sabbath is to "be still and know..."   The art of living well is to find a good rhythm based on stewardship and Sabbath.   It is also to live in the key of love.

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
    
Jack Price

FYI - Jack has published several articles at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jack_F_Price

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