Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Messy Spirituality

Home
Progressive Christian
Letting Love In: Part 2-Love Heals Us

Letting Love In: Part 2-Love Heals Us

Last updated on: August 5, 2020 at 11:09 am by Jason Elam

Letting Love In: Part 2-Love Heals Us 2020-08-05T11:09:34-04:00 Jason Elam

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is the second post in a series on Letting Love In. If you missed the first installment, check it out here.

Salvation

Receiving the love of God heals our wounds and makes us whole. The Greek word that we translate as “salvation” literally means “to be made whole”. To receive the salvation of God is to be made whole. God’s truly unconditional love heals the damage done by hatred and injustice. It breaks the power of insecurity and sets us free from the expectations of others to finally become in public who we have always been within.

Sometimes, this awakening happens all at once. We’re overwhelmed by the extravagant love of God and it shines through all of our pain within. For others, it happens more gradually. My own faith journey started at a children’s revival when I was seven years old and heard a “gospel” message that scared the hell out of me and sent me running to the alter to “get right with God” and to apologize for all the ways I’d failed Him.

Broken Foundations

Because my new faith was built on a foundation of fear, a fatal flaw was built in that kept God’s love at arm’s length. A huge shift took place when I was twelve years old in an operating room near Dayton, Ohio when I died on the operating table during a routine tonsillectomy. While clinically dead for minutes, I had an encounter with the love of God in human form. In the warm light at the end of the tunnel, I knew that I was fully known and completely loved. I also knew that everything I had done up until that point–and everything I would ever do in life–mattered.

We ran in some pretty legalistic religious circles back then, so I was immediately dragged back into a religion of trying harder to do better to make myself acceptable to God. My entire local church ministry later in life–which spanned more than twenty years–was a constant tug of war between knowing the genuine love of God and believing I had to earn it. It was exhausting.

The Shift

I’ll never forget that fateful day when I started walking the track at my local gym believing billions of people would spend eternity in Hell because they hadn’t said the magic words. Thirty minutes later, I had been so overwhelmed by the love of God that I just couldn’t believe in eternal conscious torment anymore. I knew with every fiber of my being that there is room in God’s heart for every single member of the human family and there is nothing that any of us ever have to do to deserve it. More than that, I came to believe that there had never been a time when we were separated from God in any way.

Think about it–how could any of us be separated from a God who is everywhere?

Being overwhelmed by the truly unconditional love of God set me free. I no longer feel the need to earn God’s approval or prove myself to anyone. I can be myself anywhere and everywhere because I know that I am fully known and fully loved.

“Love is the reason we happened at all. It paid for the damage we’ve done. It bought us the freedom to fall into grace. On our way to our place in the sun.”-Kris Kristofferson, “The Burden of Freedom”

For Further Reflection

This series is drawn from a message I shared at Eternal Hope UCC in Mary Esther, FL on Sunday, August 2, 2020. You can hear a rough audio recording of that message on The Messy Spirituality Podcast.

About Jason Elam

Jason Elam is Brandi’s grateful husband, proud dad of 4 awesome kids, a former professional wrestler and radio broadcaster, and former local church pastor for over 20 years. He is the author of the forthcoming book, “From Ashes We Rise” and hosts The Messy Spirituality Podcast. You can connect with Jason on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Patreon. Mess You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

August 3, 2020

Letting Love In: Part 1-Love Finds Us

Next Post

August 7, 2020 Letting Love In, Part 3: Love Keeps Us and Never Leaves

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Black Lives Matter Book Review Church Deconstruction General Jesus Living Loved Politics Prayer Theology Uncategorized War

Select a Month December 2023 November 2023 March 2023 November 2022 July 2022 June 2022 December 2021 November 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 December 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus say is the greatest commandment?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Do not steal Observe Sabbath Love the Lord your God Honor your parents