Loving With All My Heart, Soul, and Mind.

Anabelle and I were gone for a week of vacation. And as we stirred up from our sleep yesterday morning, Jane came through our bedroom door, with a smile as radiant as the morning sun on her face. She went straight to me and gave me a really tight and warm embrace. No words. No sounds. Just touch. An embrace. A hug that must have lasted an eternity but was all too soon over. And then she said, “I peeked in earlier but you were still sleeping.” And then words and stories and laughter just kept on pouring out from both of us. I knew we were home. For I was basking in the warmth of Jane’s love.

Jane’s welcome filled my heart with more joy than our one week stay in Hawaii. Not that we did not enjoy our vacation. We did and it was one of the best we’ve had. But Jane’s welcome was one moment when I felt my heart was filled to the brim with joy and happiness. Just as there are times when the pain and sorrow in living could become so hard to bear that my heart would feel like bursting. Is this what it means to love God with all my heart – feeling God’s infinite love for me there is no more room for anything else and my heart is filled to the brim and almost bursting?

My body needs constant nourishment to keep going. But there are times that when my body is weak, I could still go on. My soul can move my body even when my physical strength has flagged. My body may be tired but my spirit can still keep me going. Is this what loving God with all my soul is – to rely on God’s strength to carry me through the joys and sorrows of life and to finally bring me back home to Him?

Everything I do, I do for a reason. I watch what I eat and I do regular exercises because I want to keep healthy. I go on hikes because I just love being with nature. I go out and visit friends and family because they are important and precious to me. I read a lot because I want to feed my mind. But there are occasions when reason fails me. There are many things I do not understand. There are many events I do not know the reason for. Through the things that make sense to me to the things that I find beyond or outside or reason, I am assured of God’s love and presence in my life. Is that what it means to love God with all my mind?

I love you, O LORD, my strength, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
~Psalm 18

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
“Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
He said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40