Today’s Reflection
TO LIVE IS TO LOVE. To love is to lose. But to lose is to live. If we lose one part of our life, we become open to another part.
If we love having young children at home, when they grow up and leave home the empty space created by their leaving opens the door to love something else — like the freedom to travel or to visit with adults without interruption. When something disappears, it opens the space for something else.
Loss opens new space with regard to faith as well. When the way we understood God as a child no longer helps us navigate the swirling waters of adult life, we sometimes give up faith all together. For those who continue to immerse themselves in the stories and rituals of faith, new insights into the character of the Divine can emerge.
- Dan Moseley
Lose, Love, Live
From pages 25-26 of Lose, Love, Live: The Spiritual Gifts of Loss and Change by Dan Moseley. Copyright © 2010 by Dan Moseley. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
How have losses opened up new space for you? Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture
On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands!
Mark 6:2, NRSV
This Week: pray for who are discouraged. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.
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This week we remember Thomas (July 3).
Lectionary Readings
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
The one thing that I have learned is that we are never alone in that sense of the word GOD is allways with us forever, before during and after ourlives!!!!
Yes, Charlie, I agree. God is always with us. He knows us better than anyone and makes life possible. My relationship with him became closer 15 years ago and I am very thankful for that. One loss lead to an effort to find a replacement and finally it has happened.
Lord, help me help someone who does wonderful work and yet has feelings of discouragement from the past that are hindering the opportunity for help with the work being done.
Just to be clear, Robert– discouragement is not always caused by something a person does or did. I hope you realize that. Dwelling on past ‘mistakes’ can certainly bring feelings of discouragement. Having people imply that every discouraged moment is one’s own fault, however, is completely unhelpful to someone whose life feel out of control.
If I sought to explain how the loss of my husband has led me to new life, you readers would probably gasp and wonder what kind of marriage we had. So I won’t even bother mentioning how much deeper my God journey has grown.
Fact remains: ours is a God of life. Three days after death, life was victorious over death. So, too, in our lives– as we choose and allow.
For me, when I have a loss, I tend to make specific time for Bible reading and prayer. I also pray more continuously and spontaneously. These practices result in my being more open to the Holy Spirit and its nudges, and I tend to follow these nudges, reasoning, What do I have to lose? So my life tends to change for the better when I experience a loss. This is a wonderful paradox. When I am weak, He is strong.
“To love is to lose.” Strange statement that. I have loved and lost in the physical sense of the words. But, my love transcended the physical. When I love I love gloriously. I do not lose. The memories of that love keep that love alive for me.