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A Transcendent Love
Last updated on: December 17, 2015 at 9:30 am by John O'Keefe
A Transcendent Love 2015-12-17T09:30:46-05:00 John O'Keefe
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.
If you only love your neighbor because they’re just like you, you’re not truly loving others. We’re told to “Love others as we love ourselves,” not “Love others because they’re just like ourselves.”
I tend to think most of us have no idea what it means to love others. Sure, we use the word a great deal, and yes, we say we love things, but I think most are confused about what a Transcendent Love is all about. For most, love is pushed aside, because we have spent our lives giving the right parts of who we are to the wrong people, or so we think. We have come to the point in our lives where love is something we desire, but not something we want to give; we fear loving others, for whatever reason we have. We have been abuse, used, or because when we have shared ourselves with another, we got hurt. I tend to think this is because we see love with limits, a love that is defined by a funny feeling we get in our gut or what we can get from it. Love is seen, and most of the time expressed, in a physical manner on physical objects; we love our cars, homes, watches and new jeans.
What if we saw love as going beyond touch, beyond an expression of emotion centering on physical contact to a Love that transcends all superficial terms and conditions? What if we could share a love that excels beyond what we see as our natural limits of love? What if we could share a love that transcends our cultural limitations of class, culture, religion, color, and behaviors? What if we could move and express a love with the ability to transcends boundaries and moves us to a place where we could forgive the unforgivable, or loving the unlovable. Is it possible for us to grasp a transcendent, supernatural, love with the power to break all barriers, move past all hostility, flush all fears? Can we express a love outside of time, entwined with grace, pulsing with understanding, and acceptance? When we see a Transcendent Love, we see a love that is deeper, wider, stronger, lighter, and more evolved in the lives of others.
When we love based on our limited nature and understanding of love, we always place conditions on who we love. Our current culture tells us to love only those who can give us something in return; a conditional love based on return. Sometimes, we see love as simply making friends, or being nice to the person we meet at the store. While friendship is based on finding others like you, Transcendent Love moves us to places where we love those who are not even close to who we are. Transcendent Love, is going beyond the identity of self, it is a Love that is not hindered, or diverted, by circumstances of life.
Learning to live in the Transcendent Love of a Transcendent God means we learn to live in relationships where we embrace all parts, and strive to dance in the grace of unity.
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