IN LOVE…

 

 

 

How crucial LOVE is in everyone’s life on earth…

 

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all my mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing,”  1 Corinthians, chapter 13, verses 1-3.

 

All of us should know that love is not envious of other people’s possessions, status or wealth.  Love is not boastful telling everyone how great of a person you are as a doctor, lawyer, entertainer, athlete, religious and/or political leader.  No one person is better than the other, especially if they are boastful and void of love for one another.  Love is not arrogant like the President of the USA or of a huge corporation, like Wal-Mart.  We should not seek to destroy others, like President’s and Congress do, or closer to home like the dietary/human resources leadership/supervisors at Great River Medical Center in Burlington, Iowa.  Through their multitude of lies, they kill all prospects of love.  In love…you only find the light and truth.  For many, they live in darkness afraid to love others or their Creator for fear of losing their career or job.  Are our Supreme Being and each other in a community of mutual sharing of love more important than job, money, and power?  We should choose freely and truthfully to be in love with all creation.  We must ask for forgiveness from those who we have hurt, especially for our own failure and the failure of all people to respect and foster all forms of life in our universe.

 

As people who want to truly be in love, I and all people must reverence, protect, and promote all life, and that we will be especially sensitive to the life of the unemployed or underemployed living on non-livable wages due to the greed of corporations, the unborn, the abused, neglected, disabled, sick, elderly, victims of all immoral WARS, those in prison, those on death row, the environment, and most of all the great multitude of POOR found throughout the world and in your own neighborhood.  Love cares for the welfare of others, rather than seeking to advance itself at others’ expense.  This was the problem among the Corinthians that Paul addressed in the first paragraph, when he wrote about their ambitiousness and factions, like we see among people today right here in Iowa or New York, California or any neighborhood found throughout the world, but is most prominent here in the good old USA.  Love is not rude, in other words, it does not behave disgracefully as the wealthy in Corinth over 2000 years ago or the wealthy of today, like the Walton Family, executives of corporations, and today’s corrupt politicians are doing daily by humiliating the poor and spending money to murder one another through our hawkish, non-loving Pentagon.  Anyone who uses God’s name for the sake of nationalistic pride, patriotism, or a cry for war will not be in love with one another or our Creator.  Anyone who chooses money or power over the welfare of all life does not have a clue to be in love with God or one another.  We should not live for ourselves but for the benefit of others, that is being in love!!!  From my experience as a Nursing Assistant at Fort Madison Community Hospital, I have encountered doctors and some nurse’s who are rude, exhibit little or no respect for other staff, do not smile or say hello as passing you in the hallway, like doctors Kannenberg and Thondapu, nurse’s like Sharon, Connie and others.  Even people from other departments fail to be in love with all staff.  They are stuck on themselves, not on others.  It is especially shameful in a hospital which is supposed to be in a healing profession that extends to all, no exceptions!  Showing equal respect for one another regardless of status or position is being in love.  All of us have failed at it one time or another, but we must show our love for one another at work, in church or mosque, at home or our attitude towards others in the world, especially minorities in urban cities, religious or spiritual persuasion, sexual orientation, females, Iraqis, Iranians, North Koreans, or any culture we do not understand, and of course the poor.

 

Being in love is indescribable, unearned and unconditional.  We should all be accepted for just as we are, incomplete, broken, and restless.  We all are human with strengths and weaknesses.  It is love that should power and motivate us.  Being in love is the bond that should unite us all throughout the world and with our Higher Power.  The two are inseparable, you cannot be in love with God and not show your concern for others, just praying and running to church or synagogue is not being in love if you do not be in love with the entire universe.  One cannot “just be a good person” without being on fire with or in love with some spiritual higher ground, than mere humans cannot understand nor accept fully.  There should not be any situation that makes being in love for love to stop.  We must forgive, no matter how difficult it may be in life.  We need to open our hearts, mind and soul to love much more powerfully in the face of evil actions by others, violence in our homes, streets, country or world, and the multitude of structural and societal social injustices.  For without being alive in love for God and everyone else, we have failed as humans, and without being on fire with passion for love, our speech becomes just noise, and our actions, even if good become hollow and useless.  A burning passion to be balanced in being in love we would see on earth a renewed vision, a new face, the face of being lovers, rather than separated into factions and fighting.  There exists NO LOVE in violence, revenge and war!  Any FORCE OR LAW used against the love of God and others is always a violation of our spiritual dimension and is immoral.  The use of taxpayer’s money to murder a murderer still remains loveless, immoral and pure hatred.  The use of taxpayers money to give multimillionaires and billionaires tax subsidies remains, regardless of any rationale, is not being in love – it is pure, ugly, monstrous greed and continues to be avariciousness, covetousness, selfishness and rapaciousness- as is Wal-Mart, Exxon and the great multitude who only care about their true idol, which of course is profit, money and stock shares.  Unrestricted, unregulated, out-of-control and unfair trade in Capitalism is a SIN against our Higher Power and all living forms on earth.  Most of all the use of taxpayer’s money to fight and kill in wars is the ultimate falling away from God and others – it should be a crime, and everyone from the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court should be held accountable for their crimes and resign immediately from their positions of unrestricted and abusiveness of power.

 

Deeds of true love are content to have God as their only audience!  Those of us who only do “good deeds” for the sake of appearing holy to their neighbors or minister are complete phonies.  In the Gospel of Matthew he asks; “Do we parade our good deeds openly or keep them secret?  Those who give great amounts of their wealth to have their names written on paper, placards, stone, buildings, wings of hospitals, park benches, and so on and so on have received their reward here on earth, and their purity of heart is in question.  To truly be in love, give generously, but anonymously!  Give freely of your time, talent and treasures for the benefit of all mankind.  If you only give to receive a tax break on your taxes, you have not yet learned how to be truly and honestly in love with our Creator and with one another.  Give of yourself freely and honestly.  If at the end of the week you only have $20.00 in your pocket, consider yourself rich and give it away to the poor.  Is it possible to cut back on your entertainment wants and freely give to a social injustice issue?  Rather than going to the bar one night, donate what you would have spent on drinks and food to your church, synagogue, mosque or other spiritual center.  Don’t say you’re poor if you could live without cable or the internet or television, CD’s of music and movies, the bar scene, Fun City, toys and games.  Be honest with yourself and be in love by constantly and happily giving.  For it is far greater to give than to receive.  Don’t just give at Christmas – give year round, and don’t just give to family and friends who you love, but give to God by helping change the world for the better of all humankind and all life forms including the trees, Mississippi River, the Great Lakes of Michigan, the Everglades of Florida, Big Bend of Texas and the Green Mountains of Vermont, the beauty of Jordan, Palestine, Israel and all cultures, religions, traditions and most of all, the poor.  This is what it is all about to be truly IN LOVE.  We need to begin to practice this daily!  It is hard to be in love with a spiritual being and all the world.  It is the easy and lazy way out to just go through life with our selfish tunnel vision, and not be open to be truly in love with life.  It takes continuous effort on the part of all of us, and even if we’re 70, 80 or 90 years old, we can still learn new ways in which to participate in the joyfulness of caring, giving, and being in love with God and others.

 

All spirituality and religion, if honest with themselves should be promoting and celebrating our Oneness and not our separateness.  Being in love’s common goal is to bring us together as a human family.  It is our thoughts, actions, and how we interact and live, experience and share our love in our brief existence here on earth that is important, not the labels or words we use to separate or compartmentalize our differences.  If you don’t like the word God, then use Allah, Yahweh, Supreme Being, Creator, Spiritual Significant, Higher Power or whatever – don’t allow words to separate us from our significant spiritual dimension or from any life form in the universe.  The web of life is in tune with being in love with all.  When we finally come to accept our role to be in love with life, that our very essence of being is love, that our true identity is a spiritual one, it then becomes easier to understand that all our relationships and interactions offer us huge opportunities to experience that light of love which exists in one another and to know that what we see is but a reflection of ourselves.  We are all family through our creation by our common Higher Power of love, no one is inferior towards any one else.  WE ARE ONE!!!  Life began with single cells of male and female, which came together in mutual love from on High.  Biologically and spiritually we are connected as one, even with our beautiful gifts of diversity, especially of cultures, color, and language.  These should NOT be used to form walls around ourselves, but to build bridges of understanding through this mutual idea of being in love as ONE FAMILY COMMUNITY through that Higher Power of love or God.  Being a Communist should NOT be any more offensive than being a Capitalist or Socialist.  These are only economic and political forces where corruption shall always exist if the practitioners of these systems abuse the trust and love of all life forms and of our Creator.  This is why people caught up in the business of their own selfish lives will allow hatred, corruption and greed to rule, because they themselves claim they don’t have the strength, courage and fortitude to be in love with life.  If like our politicians from the Democrats to the Republicans are destroying that sacred bond of love and trust, we must take action.  By our example of being in love, we may teach these ignorant, selfish and infantile Politicians how to live in faith for the common good of all mankind, how to truly be in love by spending our money on life, not destructive death forces, which are evil actions, by Politicians who claim a faith, yet do not practice it in Washington, D.C., DesMoines, or Ft. Mad City Hall.  All the way down the line, especially Republicans who claim some kind of moral superiority, while at the same time bombing Iraqi’s, while making millions off the backs of the poor, while destroying God’s environment.  They are NOT in love!!!  But, neither are the Democrats who through abortion and a multitude of other moral sins, equal to the Republicans.

 

When we give of our total love to one another with no exceptions, however, we can then recognize that the purpose of all our relationships is to see the light of love in everyone we see.  We then can feel more in tune and in harmony with the universe by extending our unconditional love and forgiveness to all our relationships however brief or long they may be.  As Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. from the Center for Attitudinal Healing states, “With every unhealed relationship that becomes healed, more light and peace and love comes into the world.  The awareness of our Oneness becomes more apparent as the illusions of separation begin to disappear.  To experience LOVE as our only reality that matters in life, all we need do is constantly give it away and be thankful for this gift of being in love that has been bestowed on us mere humans by our Creator”.

 

Being in love begins at home first with ourselves and those who should be closest to us.  We can’t be in love with God or others if first we don’t love ourselves, and for some humans, they never escape this self-imposed prison.  Yet, the vast majority of us live within the selfish range more or less, including at times me.  I get angry or frustrated with people who don’t freely share their love or exhibit any love at all.  My disgrace is in my action or speech of angry and childish words to attempt to hurt them for not loving, while at the same time I am not exhibiting any love for them at that particular moment.  I must either accept where they are in their life’s journey towards being truly in love or I must role model back what love is for them to witness if they are paying any attention.  Next time a doctor or nurse tries to walk past me without a smile or greeting, I must continue to smile and say hello.  When a doctor or nurse’s tone or condescending attitude towards me erupts to the surface I must question them why they are being so mean at the time.  Help them understand the perception they are giving off towards me or others.  For the last several years, I have been very disappointed with my Dad’s side of the family, because when asked to contribute to the teaching of God’s love for all the universe, they turned their backs on me and God.  My very own Grandmother walked away from us both, and failed even to write to me in prison.  I want them to know that I forgive them and wish them to be a part of my life now and forever, but I will continue to ask them to give to God and others, just as I will do with my ex-wife, my two children and my parents.  Love is unconditional if it is real love from God, which humans must practice to survive and be in harmony with the universe.  I realize weekly my failures of being in love, but there is only one kind of certainty in my life, which I too have ignored and turned my back on in life since I was a teenager or possibly younger.  And, this kind of certainty comes only once in a person’s life, ones own purpose or vocation for existence in this vast universe.  It has taken me almost 43 years to come to realize and accept as the truth; after two children from two different women, excessive selfishness in my twenties and early thirties, an affair, lusting for sex, overabundance of alcohol, several misdemeanor offences, a failed marriage and work history that I don’t just love God, but, I am in love with God!!!  I want to pursue my calling from God to become a priest.  I feel this love in the depths of my soul and heart.  It is unlike all other love for a woman or my parents and children.  I would die for this love in God and God’s created.  I finally see this as my moment of truth and sincerity that I have walked away from since the fifth grade, while playing with my boyhood friend, Andy Tomasko in his basement.  We would both play church taking turns as the priest.  I remember those days as if it were yesterday.  He went on from high school and college and became Fr. Drew Tomasko, while I tried to be faithful through my peace and social justice work and writings, only to lead a failed and corrupted life built on lies, deceit and unfulfillment.  I am so dearly sorry God and all the failed relationships throughout my brief life at this point and stage in time.  It is time for me to get on with the business of being in love with my God and all the living on this fabulously gorgeous earth.  So, as you can see, I am not sitting in judgment of anyone else’s lack of being in love with their God and each other, just helping to make you aware of my very own revelation on this exciting proposition to be in love with God and all of humanity.  That they go hand in hand, non-separately, tied and interconnectable like the web of life.  I, like many of you are yearning for a love that is unconditional and boundless.  I have found it in others through my love in God; I can now be in love universally and without constrictions.  Our relationship with God is our relationship with ourselves, because the divine in us is who we essentially are.  The crazy idea that we are separate from God and each other is merely an illusion of consciousness.  Without love, only darkness and fear exist in a never-ending vacuum.

 

“Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them, humanity cannot survive,” His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

 

If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good.  But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance.  The clear proof of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings and co-workers.  Great compassion is the caring of other’s suffering, not your own, and wanting to do something about it, hence love is a verb.  To be able to love we must recognize our shared human status and accept openly all ideologies and systems as a means of solving humanity’s social problems.  One way is not sufficient, the USA’s way may not be the way for others nor is it the right way, and it is merely a way.  So, our definition or application of freedom and democracy must not be forcefully applied upon other people – that is not love, compassion or tolerance.  It is arrogance and it is not being in love with one another or anyone’s Higher Spirit.  Buddha, Jesus and all other great teachers created their ideas and teachings with sincere motivation, love, and kindness toward all humanity, and they shared it for the benefit of all humanity.

 

I too believe that the denial of our connection with the Mother aspect, the feminine aspect of the deity, is one of the major obstacles to achieving that meaningful and fulfilling being in love not only with the deity, but with one another.  We all can observe the element of the feminine, of the Mother, of the nurturer, from our experiences of having a Mother.  The Great Mother also has a dark aspect, however: the transformative aspect of reclaiming life at death.  But to have been deprived of that motherly dimension in the deity reflects something in our Male dominator society: a deadening of empathy, a deadening of caring and compassion and tolerance, a denial of the feminine in men, and a contempt for women and all that is perceived as feminine such as nature.  Being in love for real with our deity and others is an act of love, an act of service, a feminine connection of empathy, respect, tolerance and compassion.  This is why I’ve stated many times over again, that the USA would be better served by a woman President and a minority in race, color and creed would be a welcome surprise to returning us to our roots as a country, which cares and wants to be in love with the Creator and all of Creation in the universe.  A change towards being really in love may be found in females, and not men at all.  We must manifest the love of God in action as well as in thought and word.  We need greater understanding, but we also need the sacred acts like Native Americans and females in particular provide; the sacred art of giving birth, the sacred act of making bread and sharing of that bread equally around the table of humanity.  These are all ritual acts in the sense of ritual as an act of love being actively in love with one another and God.  An active, positive involvement in the art of being in love, as well as an act of love with one another as community.  I want to be in love, not because it is immoral not to love, but because I derive great pleasure in sharing myself lovingly towards my God and others.  I do not fear punishment or doom as a child might, I’m reassured that my being in love will create a better world, even if I do not see it in my lifetime, most likely my grandchildren and great grandchildren will.  Follow the path of being in love!

 

If I learned nothing else from college but this, I am truly blessed.  In every age and civilization, three ideas about life and beyond seem to overlap.  The first is that there’s an infinite, invisible world beyond the world that we experience.  The second is that this infinite world is a part of every human personality.  And, the third is that the purpose of life is to discover this infinite world of love.  I am not telling you to believe in any religion, dogma or creed, only to open up yourself to this life-giving source of being in love through service of word and deed of this Infinite Love, and sharing that Infinite love with the world around you.  Listen for your call to this magnificent Infinite Love and to show how to be in love with all life forms, including the birds, flowers and the foundation of all life, the Ameba cell.  My goal now and into the future is to experience unconditional love and acceptance and joy for everyone, even those who are behaving in ways that I find difficult to accept.  Since working with patients in a hospital setting, I’ve come to accept them as they are incomplete, broken and restless – I only see myself falling in love with them, not seeing them as a job, a paycheck, an old person or a fat person.  I see them in communion with me, at home at being in love and sharing it endlessly.  It is sacred and holy work!  As Gandhi said, “renounce all worldly possessions and attachments to everything and enjoy the love of God”.  The results of your actions are much less important than all the love you continually and daily give away, and connecting in a loving fashion to everything in the universe.  Try it, and see what happens!

 

My mother does not believe that I listen to her, but this past January she said something very profound.  I was a bit perplexed but later realized what it meant to me and its application to my life.  To paraphrase my beautiful mother, it went something like this; Scott, you must be planted to grow and bloom.  All of my adulthood has been one move to another move and on and on, and from one job to another to one, two, three and now four careers later.  Yes, my health has been a determining factor in many cases, but just as high on the list was my anger at society, and not playing very well with my co-workers.  I am not at all an easy man to live or work with, as my multitude of former Supervisors may claim or my ex-wife may testify to that fact. I know now through prayer and revelation that I need to return home to my roots, and from where God first started calling me to grow and bloom.  I will be returning to my hometown of Detroit and planting myself to grow and blossom hopefully, no matter how long or difficult the road or planting season may be for me.  I have many obstacles ahead, but with the love of my God or Higher Power, and the love I’ve always had for all creation, I shall have the grace to persevere daily, because love surrounds me.  I feel the hands of God directing my way, my path towards greater love and awareness through that love to grow and bloom.  My deep love and conviction is a great passion for the love of God.  God and humanity are everything to me.  I wake each morning “staying hungry” for the love of God and humanity.  It continues to intensify.  I have chosen the path and vision of being in love and leave the past in the past, and look forward to each new day, living in the presence of God’s love for all of us. 

 

As a rose’s purpose is to grow and become strong enough to bloom.  When you or I finally mature spiritually, you and I can bloom into an awareness of our Oneness with God and humanity.  Without that awareness, we remain immature, regardless of how much we have attained in the world materialistically, intellectually, or emotionally.  Being…IN LOVE will give us everything that matters, yet nothing that matters to the selfish and loveless masses, especially in the ranks of earthly money and power.  Our hearts and souls earnest desire should not come from consumerism and materialism, but from our spiritual realization of love.  Eventually we become at one with the love of God and humanity.  But, I do invite all to join with me in loving our Creator and all of Creation.  This is an open-ended invitation, no need to R.S.V.P, come as you are, no matter what walk of life or what path you follow.  Join in the celebration of being…IN LOVE!!!

 

“The fruit of love is service, which is compassion in action,”

MOTHER TERESA

 

 

 

 

God Bless The World…IN LOVE,

 

 

 

SCOTT P. DIEHL

www.godblesstheworld.us

scottaloysius@yahoo.com