The Importance of Understanding God's love

Paul writes Ephesians 3: 17b-19: in verses 17b-19: I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (NIV). But why does Paul say that Christians need to be rooted in God’s love and grasp it? He could just as well prayed for them to be rooted and established in God. The fact is nothing is more stabilizing, more securing and encouraging and life giving than the experience of love.  Child Psychologists have diagnosed many children with Attachment Disorder. Some of the things that cause Attachment Disorder are unwanted pregnancy, abuse and neglect. Nancy L. Thomas in her book When Love is Not Enough writes, “Babies do know what the mother is feeling and thinking during pregnancy.” As a result in the case of an unwanted pregnancy a baby can feel what the mom is feeling, that it is not wanted. On top of it if there is abuse and neglect later on the child end up suffering from Attachment Disorder. Children with Attachment Disorder grow up with the need to be in control, without the ability to trust, and lack of ability to care from their heart, because caring takes trusting among other things. As a result they become destructive towards themselves, towards other children and towards their pets. And it all originates from this experience of not being wanted, of being abused and neglected. In essence it all originates from their experience of not being loved.

Therefore, just as having a mom is not enough, but being rooted and established in a mom’s nourishing love is important for the child to grow up into a healthy human being, similarly it is not enough for Christians to have a God, they need to experience the love of God, they need to be rooted and established in God’s love in order to grow up healthy in their Christian life and faith. God’s love is as character forming for Christians as a mother’s love for a child.

Goodbye Habituation!

My New Year's goal is to fight "habituation." Psychologist  Lynn Johnson in his book "Enjoy Life"  says that habituation is the reason why we can't be happy forever with what we have (X). A person thinks if he gets $10,000 he will be happy. Then that person gets his $10,000. But in time he gets habituated to that amount, and then he wants more in order to be happy. In essence habituation contributes to our profound sense of unhappiness and also makes us thankless for what we already have. As Proverbs 27:20 reminds us, "Death and destruction are never satisfied and neither are human eyes."

I have become habituated to my ministry, my church, my wife, my children, my car, my house....., and sometimes I wish if only my church would grow in number, if only I had a bigger house, if only..... then only I would be happy. And as a result I begin to envy my more successful  pastor friends and begin to work more hours for that extra money to buy that bigger something..... Habituation not only undermines my happiness but also my sense of gratitude toward God for all that he has already given me.  I want habituation gone in 2014. Therefore I do not ask God for anything new this new year. I ask God to break my bondage to habituation and help me rejoice in what he has already given me beginning with the year I was born through 2013.