Spirit Matters: A love letter for those feeling hostility

Dear Beautiful Soul (that means you),

Happy Valentine’s Day Weekend!

I’m here today to remind you where you come from and why you are here.

The answer to both of these questions can be answered with two words: Divine Love.

You are an expression of the Love that is the Origin of All Things.

Since the substance of the Origin of all things is Love, that means at your heart, you are love too. And your purpose before you were born, while you are here, and after you die will always be to love others as you love yourself.

I learned that from a carpenter who walked the Earth a few thousand years ago. His teachings were revolutionary. So revolutionary, the religious establishment crucified him for it, and his teachings are still fought over two millennia later. The religious establishment and the aristocracy didn’t appreciate some simple man from Nazareth telling them who God was or how God expected them to live. They still don’t.

And they certainly didn’t appreciate him telling them the foreigner, the uneducated, the poor and the downtrodden held a favorable place in God’s heart. And that how we treat these neighbors of ours is more important to God than how we follow the rules of the law.

Loving others as you love yourself means you have to be able to love yourself in order to love others. Loving yourself the way God expects means living life with the intent to do no harm to your being, which comes from Love. And you have to treat your neighbor with the intent to do no harm to his or her being either, which originates from the same Love you do.

But let’s face it, many of us carry hostility inside these hearts of ours.

For most of us, it didn’t start out that way the day we were born. We started out as innocent babies, like that teacher from Nazareth did in a dirty, cold stable, but surrounded by the warmth of love.

Maybe the circumstances into which you were born weren’t ideal. Or maybe as your life unfolded, you were kicked around a bit by your circumstances and the people you’ve met along the way.

Maybe genuine love was never modeled to you, so you don’t even realize that the beliefs and behaviors you have acquired are anything but loving, to yourself or to others.

That hostility in your heart – and all of us are hostile to one degree or another – keeps you from seeing the world the way that carpenter from Nazareth saw it. And it causes you to ignore or invalidate the needs and personhood of our neighbors, near and far.

That carpenter from Nazareth was able to see into the heart of all things and all people. He saw beyond appearances – social class, education level, perceived sinfulness – none of that mattered to him.

Because he knew underneath all of those socially-imposed labels was a heart and soul made by God that had been hurt and burdened by life. And all he wanted was to restore that heart to its original beautiful state.

If that carpenter from Nazareth was able to see beyond outward appearances and love and heal lepers – literal and figurative – can you allow yourself to do the same, as well?

Beautiful Soul, I ask you to spend some time this weekend reacquainting yourself with your heart. Take an honest inventory of its current state, even if it is painful to do so. Allow yourself to recognize and feel the hurts and hostility that have accumulated through the years – those things that have kept you from fully loving yourself and your neighbor.

And then let them go.

And begin the healing process of learning to live and see the world from your heart space. Put your hand on your heart and feel its gentle warmth. Allow it to expand and soften you.

Then begin to send that gentle, warm, loving heart energy out into the world, to specific people you encounter throughout your day. People you know, and people you don’t know. People you might not like.

Fulfilling our purpose of sharing in Divine Love can be difficult sometimes, particularly when the world around us is on fire. But it is not impossible.

Put down your armor now, and let yourself love and be loved.

It is really all that matters.

An it is the only thing that will save our world.

SPIRIT MATTERSis a weekly column by Jerrilyn Zavada Novak that examines experiences common to the human spirit. Contact her at jzblue33@yahoo.com.