God is Love

This past summer I had a brief momentary opening. It was during the painful stress of being back home to care for my mother as she underwent cancer surgery. My eldest, and closest, sister and I had both returned home to be with my parents in this terrible time. During one brief respite my sister and I talked about “religion”. She knows that I have come back to the faith after many years of wandering. She has not. My sister has led a life of struggle and trial. She is remarkably successful and I am extremely proud of her and the things she has strived for and achieved. She is truly an inspiration to me. There is nothing I would want to share with her more than the faith that has blossomed in me the last ten years. I have prayed for the opportunity to do so many times in the past few years. In this brief conversation she asked me what I believed the Catholic (read Christian) faith was really about.

I knew this was a pivotal moment. The wrong words could further justify her distance, a judgmental perspective would shut her down to this topic. My sister sees the church as a man made invention to suppress women. I think in many ways religion is just that so again my words had to be chosen with care. I cried out the briefest of prayer and trusted in the spirit to put the rights words in my mouth. Love. The Christian faith is first and foremost about love. I explained what I meant and left it at that. I have wondered since that day whether the seed the Holy Spirit planted had taken root or not.

Well I believe it may have. Not in an obvious way, rather in one of those delicious ironies that God so masterfully wields to talk to us. Today I finished reading a profound book The Shack. Have you heard of it? William Young has written a book for the ages. Shades of C.S. Lewis come through for me in the richness of the pictures Mr. Young paints. This book is a heart wrenching story of love that must be read, it demands to be read. It does not matter if you believe or not it is hard not to be entranced by the elegant simplicity of this wonderful story. As the tears flowed, the lump in my throat grew there was only two thoughts invading my mind; God is love, give this book to your sister to read.

God is love indeed.

I hope my sister will love this book as much as I did

If you want to learn more about The Shack go to www.theshackbook.com

God bless.