I am sorry if my posts seem sermon-ish lately.
I think I go through phases in my thinking, and it reflects in some kind of pattern here on this site.
Today I was thinking about how I used to really judge people’s mistakes and spend a lot of time trying to avoid sin. I would say cute phrases like, “hate the sin, love the sinner,”
But the *real* sins like, you know like sexual sins, I was both terrified and judgmental about.
Another thing, I used to be so concerned with what others said was right and wrong I never took the time to stop and think why?
What makes something right or wrong?
Is it simply something that hurts other people or hurts you or not?
Is it simply something that God says is right or wrong?
As a kid the most annoying thing in the world is when you asked a parent “Why?” and they would respond with, “Because I said so.”
Now granted there is a time when you can’t comprehend the reasons why and you have to just trust your parent’s judgment.
But when you enter adulthood and began to reason and process things for yourself and hopefully develop your own moral compass, it would be frankly condescending for your parent to still say, “Because I said so.”
I don’t think God wants to say that to us. I think He wants us to understand and make up our own minds about what is right and wrong.
“Love fulfills the whole law.”
What if there were no arguments about what is good and what is not, simply because it was obvious if you are loving, it is good. If you are not loving, it is not.
How is it that simple?
Well, God is love.
He wants us to feel loved, and to love.
We are made to do both, and when we don’t have one or the other we are like a bird with a broken wing.
That’s simple.
Simple, but impossible on our own.
Why?
Because no matter how hard we try, we are selfish.
We always have a hidden agenda.
An ulterior motive.
But He doesn’t.
That’s why, the only way to live, is to be embraced by utter love Himself.
It’s may not seem to “make sense.”
It may not be a step-by-step process, a list of things to read and understand with your head.
But it is life.
And swiftly, with no motive other than pure gratuitous love,
You will be invaded by all that is good and true and lovely.
You may not always feel it.
You may still walk through days of terror,
Utter pain,
Wreckage.
But Love will be a way of life.
It will persist.
It will win.
It will overshadow living in a stuffy, black and white world of being hyper-sensitive to immorality.
It’s a beautiful world, full of color and light, where no one is judged, where love abounds.
Broken wings are mended, and we can finally take flight.
brookelouvier.com 
Thank you for sharing I think about stuff like that all the time – I had a discussion with an atheist once – he said he didn’t believe – I asked “do you believe in love?” he said yes so I said “I believe God is love so maybe we believe in the same thing with different words – so will God judge me for that? Actually I don’t think we even have the right to judge ourselves – just try our best to understand and accept people for who they are and not for who we want them to be – without compromising virtue – it’s interesting to note humility is the king of virtues -truth love wisdom beauty and community grow through humility. It’s opposite – pride – doesn’t leave room for growth.
Ya like I said I think about stuff like that – it was refusing to read your post – thank you
When I was 11 years old I firmly let shame and therefore, rejection, take hold of my life. My family situation became critically compromised, and I found myself in a place of isolation.
There was an after school group called Boys and Girls Club at my elementary school. At Boys and Girls Club the playground was open for games. The cafeteria was open for dodge ball and arts and crafts. I wanted desperately to be a part of things. To feel that I belonged there. It looked like fun and I wanted friends.
My family was new to the area, reasons for our move were due to the breakdown of my parents’ relationship. Their road had been grueling. A psychological and emotional cancer drawn out over years and years. They were not two adults at odds, each from a place of strength and offense. I can say that much.
On sign up day for Boys and Girls Club I found myself walking home alone reasoning, ‘Boys and Girls Club is only for the boys and girls who deserve it, anyway.’ The thought was slow and firm into the back of my neck. Like being in something’s jaws. I wore my pink backpack and this acute sense of not deserving to belong. I made the mistake then of accepting the lie. And as is the nature of humanity, I hid. I went further and further behind the trees and I told no one. Shame cemented my identity. I remember hating it, wishing I could somehow be different, that I could be normal and deserving of good things. It was the day, at the end of a frayed and swinging rope, that I let go.
It has taken 19 years to accept the fact, and I do see that this is a fact now, that it was not me who was the problem. It really wasn’t. That it was what I believed. The child was not the disease, the lie was the disease. My circumstances were not the problem, the hiding was the problem.
“Your only sin is that you do not believe.” I think it translates to so many levels of life. And love covers a multitude of sin.