Pablo Giacopelli's Blog - Posts Tagged "the-modern-fig-leaf"
The First commandment starts with us
Over the years the first commandment Jesus encouraged us to observe was to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, strength, and mind. On face value this encapsulates all of our being which for most of us is made up of the parts we like and like to show others as well as the parts we don’t like and we prefer to hide in the dark. Now in my own life I am discovering that the best way to see this commandment fulfilled is to actually embrace and love every part of myself and not just the sides I am proud of. You see, when I only embrace the side that I am happy with I also allow God to only embrace this part of me and not the whole of my being. Now the funny thing is that we do this out of shame and false pretense as we think that God somehow is not aware of it or perhaps doesn’t want to know about it or go there as he is only interested in what is clean, whole, and shinny. Yet, the reality is that God is already there within our darkness and is very interested in it as it is here that he wants us to understand first how much and how well he loves us in spite of this hidden place within us.
I would love today to encourage all of us to begin the day by giving ourselves a big hug and embrace as much as we can of ourselves. As we do this let us close our eyes and ask Dad to helps us see from within which areas we are holding back from him that prevent him from giving us the unconditional hug and embrace we all long for.
Remember the only way we are going to see the first commandment consistently fulfilled in our lives, is if we start doing what it says with the whole of ourselves and as we do this I know that slowly but surely we will begin to also see and feel God doing the same in return. #oneenablestheother #modernfigleaf
-pablo-
I would love today to encourage all of us to begin the day by giving ourselves a big hug and embrace as much as we can of ourselves. As we do this let us close our eyes and ask Dad to helps us see from within which areas we are holding back from him that prevent him from giving us the unconditional hug and embrace we all long for.
Remember the only way we are going to see the first commandment consistently fulfilled in our lives, is if we start doing what it says with the whole of ourselves and as we do this I know that slowly but surely we will begin to also see and feel God doing the same in return. #oneenablestheother #modernfigleaf
-pablo-
The Light at the end of the tunnel
One of the things that the appearance of Jesus did in history was spoil the show most people were so involved and passionately pushing forward.How true is Is amazing as look back at this event how people totally misunderstood Jesus and his message as they missed the fact that Jesus was not saying to stop the show as much as he was saying that the show could be so much more if we looked at the same script he was flowing with.
As I think about this event I start to see that maybe what Jesus meant when he said that you could not put new wine into old wineskins was that we could not enter into the reality of the show he was living in with the same approach we were currently undertaking. Perhaps God knew that the restrictive and controlling systems and reality we had created would limit the dance he all along longed to have with his creation to the tune of the unforced rhythms of grace and not rules. Or maybe he was trying to show us that there was a lot more happening to and in us when we stopped and observed things we think very little of like taking the time to watch the trees wave in the wind and the flowers dance in the cool of the summer breeze. Or watching the waves deliver both their powerful roar out in the open ocean and their gentle touch when they finally reached the shore. Or how about the sunset and the way the sun gently kisses the waters in the horizon as it goes on to fulfill the promise that though the night might be long the morning will eventually come so the show can go on.
It is true that when God showed up in Jesus the impact he had upon history was so evident that even the calendar we use was changed. Yet as I look further and deeper I see that perhaps what this Dad of ours came to help us see was that the light at the end of the tunnel was not an illusion like the tunnel we believed separated us from this eternal light within us called his Kingdom…
Have a great week!
-pablo-
As I think about this event I start to see that maybe what Jesus meant when he said that you could not put new wine into old wineskins was that we could not enter into the reality of the show he was living in with the same approach we were currently undertaking. Perhaps God knew that the restrictive and controlling systems and reality we had created would limit the dance he all along longed to have with his creation to the tune of the unforced rhythms of grace and not rules. Or maybe he was trying to show us that there was a lot more happening to and in us when we stopped and observed things we think very little of like taking the time to watch the trees wave in the wind and the flowers dance in the cool of the summer breeze. Or watching the waves deliver both their powerful roar out in the open ocean and their gentle touch when they finally reached the shore. Or how about the sunset and the way the sun gently kisses the waters in the horizon as it goes on to fulfill the promise that though the night might be long the morning will eventually come so the show can go on.
It is true that when God showed up in Jesus the impact he had upon history was so evident that even the calendar we use was changed. Yet as I look further and deeper I see that perhaps what this Dad of ours came to help us see was that the light at the end of the tunnel was not an illusion like the tunnel we believed separated us from this eternal light within us called his Kingdom…
Have a great week!
-pablo-
