Love.  I find myself lucky to have experienced a warm edifying love several times over.  I am thankful because I know the difference between love and that which others have confused as love.  Their experience s of damaging, heart-wrenching, self-serving acts can appear as passionate love, but indeed it is not.   That is our individual human pride, and then the fear associated with loss of self, that oftentimes becomes the focus  of interpersonal relationships. 

Love doesn’t take away–it is life giving.  To abide in love–to wait, pause, delay, stay, dwell, continue, last–is to sit still in a state of a revitalizing, living, life giving love.  By virtue of dwelling in that place, every action, every intent, is colored with that which renews all who we encounter.

John 15:9-17. Abide in my love.

Abide in me, Lord Jesus, that I may abide in your love. Expand me, stretch me, fill me, breathe through me, that I may admit more and more of you into myself, until no trace of not-you remains.

Until you abide in me, Lord, I remain shriveled and limp. Surround me with your love. I long for you, Lord; answer my longing. Sing through my voice; move through my hands. Make your thoughts my thoughts, your obedience my obedience, yourself myself. As you fill me, Lord, and I become who you are, I do not become less of who I am, but more truly myself, the self I am meant to be, the self I ache to be but never will be until I abide in your love. Come, Lord Jesus. I am yours–claim what is your own.

And then do with me as you will. I care not where I go, so long as I go with you; I care not what I do, so long as you do it through me; I care not what I have, for all things are yours; I care not where or how I finish my course, so long as I finish with you.

Love all for Jesus, but Jesus for himself. Jesus Christ alone is singularly to be loved. He alone is good and faithful above all others. For him and in him, let both friends and foes be dear to you. Pray for them all, that Jesus will make them to know and love him.
–Thomas à Kempis (from Forward Movement)

Thank You for being the example of perfect Love so that I may discern that divine love in those around me.  I pray that I am mindful of dwelling in that place, and therefore spreading the infectious divine to my neighbor, my friend, my loved one.