So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:12, NIV)
We seem to be returning to a more normal kind of life. The past year may have been the loneliest period of time most of us can remember. It has been fun to get back together with my golfing friends and ride in the same cart and enjoy genuine connection again.
It is a great truth in our existence that we are all actually alone. We are created as individuals and our life is ours to live in the way we choose. We have free will. This is undoubtably God’s most risky gift to mankind and has resulted in both misfortune and pleasure for all of us.
Coupled with our free will is an enormous need for connection. The same Creator who gave us free will recognized that it was not good for us to be alone. We are made to freely interact with others and that interaction brings pleasure to us and to God when it occurs within the boundaries God has laid out for us. Relationships are to be governed by the law of love that seeks the best good of its object. That is how God loves us and it is how he wants us to love others.
The best kind of life starts with recognizing that we can’t get to the best life without God’s help.
Our fallen human nature recognizes that being alone and responsible for our actions is not always easy. It seeks to find ways that we can feel connected but without paying the full price of sacrificial love. Trying to circumvent God’s perfect plan for connection leads to most of the conflict that occurs on earth. Control and power become our primary motivation and we attempt to create connection by forcing our will on those we are with or want to be with. The strong try to control the weak, a type of connection that is always unsatisfactory. We still find ourselves alone.
The most wonderful thing about being connected to God and living a life that is pleasing to him is the fact that we will never be alone again. If we receive God’s love for us, we are connected to him and we can connect to others by loving them without manipulation and control. If those we connect with are also believers, our sphere of aloneness has decreased as we become part of God’s greater family.
The cure for our loneliness is to trust in the One who made us and who wants to be connected to us. We all get to choose how we live our life, but the best kind of life starts with recognizing that we can’t get to the best life without God’s help. We will all be held accountable to God at the end of our life for how we have lived (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). Our greatest motivation should be to become the kind of person that can ease the separation and loneliness of others by sharing the kind of love that God has given us. Easy to say, harder to do, but entirely possible when we are committed to the One who has loved us when we were entirely unlovable.
—
Linda Ballard
June 3, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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