Understanding God's Love - Part II: While We Suck

I just read part 1 and I think it kind of sucks. This part probably should have gone along with the first part, because the two are inextricable from one another. They have to be connected in our minds and hearts. Or else, we'll do one of two things, either becoming pompous knowing God loves us or despising ourselves knowing we're not worthy of love. Neither of those is very helpful. That said, here goes dos.

So, we know that there's nothing we've done that makes us worthy of love, but still, there's this strange idea present that we have to become worthy of love to be loved. Humans, and it seems also, American culture, often think that to get A we have to do B. We work to obtain money. We work for reputation. We work for respect. Naturally then, we also should work for love, even God's love. It's a sociological philosophy embedded in our culture, not reflective of reality, but difficult to get past.

There's another reason why we're so apt to try to work for God's love... we're proud little son of a bucks. People want to be able to attribute to themselves whatever good attributes they can. So we refrain from admitting the reality of our hearts, that they are depraved, in order to maintain an ostentatious ruse of righteousness. That way, we can puff ourselves up, call ourselves good people worthy of God's love, and when our goodness comes into question, advert to how we stand comparatively to the rest of the world. In doing this, we make God's love for us, about us. And, like most everything else, it's not.

The veracious reality is that because we suck there is nothing we can do to earn God's love. Trying to earn God's love and believing we can only leads to failure, which makes us see ourselves as failures, which leads to more failure, which leads to self-hatred and condemnation. Surprisingly, we must stop trying. When we're trying to become good enough to be loved by God, we're keeping ourselves from accepting God's love. We refuse, for whatever reason, to accept the love he offers. Getting caught up in the desire to and attempt to earn only leads us further and further away from an understanding of the love God has for us, the free love.

Right now, in the middle of my crap, in the middle of your disgusting sin, God loves you and I powerfully, infinitely, perfectly. There's nothing I can do to acquire more of God's love. There's nothing you can do to diminish God's love for you. Although by it's very nature sin is contemptible to God, and we are the purveyors of sin, God loves us. So deep does this love run that He sent His son, a part of Himself, to become the ablution, salvation, and expiation for our sins - opening up the room of God's presence to the entire world. Let go. Acknowledge your sinful heart, end your endeavor to earn God's love, and let the love that is already waiting for you come into your life. It changes everything.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8