By Kenneth Stepp
I love you… What does that tell you about us? If both of us understand what love is and the love we have is real unconditional love, it means, you’re safe. It means the power of the love I hold for you extends grace, or my thoughts and feelings for you are filtered through the lense of grace.
Ok, that may sound like a bunch of word soup, be patient while I unwrap this in a practical sense. Real love, or unconditional love, is a God like power bestowed upon us that many, including myself, do not understand fully. Since I don’t completely understand this unconditional love, I decided I’m the right person to talk about it. Welcome to the way my mind works.
Where love exists, there are several things riding with it. Emotional safety is there. If you make a mistake, have flaws (we all do), deficiencies, or just plain screw up, the grace of love covers you and the faults that come with simply being human. Most days my humanness is too much. I long to have the love and the grace that comes with it in my life.
I call them knowns. I had these in my marriage, I knew who I would be vacationing with, I knew where I’d be every day, I knew the direction of my future and who I’d spend it with, I knew, I knew, and I knew. I’m guessing you can see what my knowns are now. I just knew my life direction back then. I want knowns again. They are important to me.
My life lately has been chaotic. Well, inside the walls of my mind has been. I use to wonder when someone looked in my eyes as I smiled at them if they could see the chaos going on inside me. Now I know I hide it too well. We learn to do that as we age. We know now that most people are more curious than caring about the internal battles we are fighting at the moment. This is another reason I need her. She’s on my side, we are a team. I won’t have to hide my inner self from her.
Today is Easter and I’m writing about grace. I wonder if that’s a sign? Am i in Sync with my creator or is it just the pizza I had for dinner last night shaping my dreams? I’d like to think I’m plugged into the power rather than the food. As I write this piece I am touched by something beyond me. Have you ever felt unknown forces are guiding you in a certain direction?
Grace: In Western Christian theology, grace is “the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not necessarily because of anything we have done to earn it”. It is not a created substance of any kind. … It is an attribute of God that is most manifest in salvation.
I wanted to use a theological definition of grace to make the point I’ve been trying to unpack for my readers. You see, real love, while built, is unearned. And the grace that comes with this love is so forgiving and keeps us safe within the confines of our relationship. The same way that God never turns His back on us, we never turn our back on someone we love unconditionally. It’s how love works.
I suppose this is my Easter message for everyone. Maybe my explanation wasn’t clear. I have found whether a simple subject or a complex one, they can all be broken down in simple terms. If you share unconditional love with someone, enjoy a miraculous freedom, enjoy an amazing acceptance, and enjoy a life knowing…
#comefindme
