Sunday, May 13, 2012

Really Chosen? Really.....Dying?

A Reflection on John 15:9-17 "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. " Often I have read this phrase "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" and thought that this meant literally and perhaps it does but as of late I have considered perhaps Jesus may have meant something else. Giving up ones literal life is noble and sacrificial but what about our daily lives? By this I mean letting go of my friends idiosyncrasies, you know the little things that annoy us. Accepting them fully, unconditionally, releasing expectations and not having to be right when perhaps we are having a disagreement. Instead realizing what is most important and in the end who is really in control but none other than the living and loving God. An addage comes to mind "Silence is golden." With all of this forgiveness and remembering the commandment "Love one another as I have loved you." Wow, easier said than done and did I just feel an ouch, a death within, a laying down my life for a friend?  "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. " To be chosen, often we think that we chose Jesus but clearly here we read "I chose you." Here we see Jesus reveal what a wonderful, loving Father we have. We are all chosen if we listen to that whisper that speaks to our heart, to that longing that is so deep it is unutterable. It is here when we say yes, remain humbly grounded and remain in that love that we bear fruit of everlasting life not only for ourselves but for all of humanity.

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