For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  John 3:17

God didn’t commission me to condemn others either.  In fact, Jesus commanded, in Matthew 22:38, that I love my neighbor as myself.  How in the world can I do that?  Back it up two verses to His first and greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  That’s how.

When I set about loving my Lord my God with all of my heart and with all of my soul and with all of my mind, my life changes powerfully.  I receive so many gifts that I am full of God’s unceasing love and can freely give that love to others. The greatest gift is receiving God’s great love for me!  I learn to live in that love and even learn to love myself as He sees me.  When I do, when I know how much I am loved by the Creator of the universe, by the Great I Am, then I can give love generously to others as He commands me to do.

Condemning others, or myself, stops that flow because it isn’t what I’m here to do.  I am not to condemn myself.  I am to live in the truth that God loves me and isn’t condemning me.  I am not to condemn others.  I am to give them the love God has given me.

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.                  1 John 3:18

On a mossy point at the back of the pond, the turtles like to rest in the sun.  As I round the path, they crawl quickly into the water or push up on two legs and splash upside down, abandoning their warm naps to the safety of the chilly water. Occasionally one brave (or tired) one will stay, allowing me to say hello,  even reach out and touch its shell in love and kindness.

I knew God before I started these walks and I knew He meant only to love me. But sometimes when I heard Him knocking, I pulled the shades and chose not to listen. Or perhaps I was so busy enjoying my pleasant little spot in the sun, I didn’t hear His knock at all. I will be forever grateful He called me to the park that summer day and that I heard Him and followed.

Does God first call to His children or do the children seek Him? God has called and called and He continues to call.  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Psalm 19:1 God provided His word, the Bible, to reach his children and teach them of His love and salvation. His heavenly angels and earthly saints work to bring people to the Savior. When His children hear His call, they respond and seek Him with their whole hearts.

He answers without fail, again and again, as I seek Him more and more. I am found. I remain in His Son.  I ask God to search me, to know my heart and lead me to an everlasting life with Him.

He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen. Isaiah 28:12

God’s creation spoke to me every summer on my great grandfather’s farm.  The warm tomatoes in the black fields, my bare feet on the harsh earth, goat’s milk on my cereal that tasted of the onions I fed her the day before. I loved living “close to nature”.  I felt inspired and free.

One summer our little place near the bay was hit by a hurricane. We battened down the hatches as best we could but the little octagonal screen house, our sweet space of reprieve from the nagging mosquitos and greenheads, was taken up and began rolling around the property. My mother and I ran out to save it and a single moment in the driveway has never left me.

We caught the thing awkwardly flopping on the gravel, my mom on one side and I on the other, as a flash of lightning lit the sky.  A bolt of enlightenment for us both.  As an exclamation point to the storm’s declaration of power, a sharp blast of wind blew my contact from my eye.  I instinctively reached into the gale but it was gone forever in an instant.  All at once, we dropped the impossible collapsing thing and ran back to safety.

God’s fierce winds bring destruction and renewal.  I’ve learned to see them both as one, His gift.  Beseeching Him on my walks, I am reminded of His infinite power when a strong gust altogether moves me, the heavy limbs above my head and the cluttered ground at my feet.  Stand back. It is Mine.

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet. Nahum 1:3b