Heart and Soul

"The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself." -[Mark 12: 28B-34].


There are over 600 Commandments in the Old Testament. But when Jesus came, His Commandments were summarized in the Commandment, above. This Commandment can be summed up in one word, Love.

I suppose one could reduce the Rules For Living into the Ten Commandments, but each Commandment - Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; This shalt not bear false witness - all come down to one unifying command, to Love.

To love the Lord our God, alone, means to not make anything else a god in one's life - not material goods, not fame, not power, not money, not one's physical beauty, not one's all consuming hobby or pastime, not one's vast command of facts and figures and regulations, not one's work title or accomplishments, and so forth.

There is no "I" in God.

We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all mind and with all our strength.

I remember one evening my husband came home from work, seeming dejected. I asked what was wrong? He told me that a big boss had asked him, "What ARE you?" He had replied, "Uh? A guy?" This boss was not satisfied. So he replied, "Uh? American?" Finally, my husband became aware that the boss was asking about his religion. He replied, " Oh. I am Christian. Catholic."

The boss said to my husband, "YOU are way too smart to be Catholic." My husband replied, "Boss, you have a LOT to learn."

Folks misperceive us Christians. They assume we are privileged, powerful, wealthy and classist. But this Commandment begs otherwise. God wants every part of us. We as Christians are supposed to be ALL in - giving our hearts to Him - not to money, jewels, fame, prestige, power. He wants us to love Him and love each other, as much as He loves us.

God wants our soul. He does not want us to "sell out" to an evil program that seeks to mislead us into thinking that absolute power will make us invincible.  He does not want us to "give anything" to have worldly control, massive amounts of possessions, or abusive power.

God calls us with our minds. He does not want us to follow Him blindly; otherwise, how would we put our intellect to bear, to love and help a neighbor in need?  How would humankind ever have discovered penicillin, or invented solar power, or researched cures for cancer, without the considerable determination of the mind? The impulse to help others is the impulse to love, and Love comes from God and God IS Love.

God wants us to love one another with all our strength. In this area, I think of Habitat for Humanity, the organization that brings together many hard workers to sweat and labor in building homes for the disadvantaged. If we are not working hard to help each other, we are not following the Commandment to love with all our strength.

Folks misperceive us Christians. They assume that we are rule-bound, judgmental, intolerant, haters.
But we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. God knew that as humble, unassuming and gentle as He would expect us to be, our temptation is to always take just a little bit more for ourselves and leave a little bit less for others.

Anyone who uses Scripture to carve out anyone, as "not worthy" of God or of our Love, is mis-using the Bible and torturing Christianity. In God's call to love one another, there ARE no exceptions.

When I sent my son off to school for the first time when he was about 5, I told him: " If it isn't Love, don't do it, don't say it, don't believe it, don't promote it. Always do the loving thing. When you are done with your work, use your extra strength to help your classmates or the teacher. Put yourself in others' shoes. What if that were you? What kind of response would you hope for?"

"If we have no Peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Mother Teresa.

(c) Spiritual Devotional 2018. All Rights Reserved.