It all starts with: I am very committed to friendship. The trust between friends, and the level of comfort that can be established between friends, is a rare and beautiful thing to me. Something worth searching a lifetime for! This being the case, I have personally made some foolhardy sacrifices for friends. Perhaps foolhardy. Not sure I'm able to get God's perspective on my actions too clearly. And the answers will not come in too clearly. This is why acceptance and unconditional love become so very important. You may just be calling someone a fool, who actually is the only one carrying the answers! I only know how my mother taught me, and I will go ahead and share it again:
One evening when Abu Ben Adem was sitting in his study, an angel from the Lord appeared to him. "What are you doing here?", Abu Ben Adem asked. "I am making a list of everyone that loves the Lord", the angel answered. Adem asked, "Am I on the list?" The angel said "You are not". Then Abu Ben Adem replied: "Pray thee, write me down as one who loves his fellow man". The next night the angel appeared in Abu Ben Adem's study once again and said: "I am making a list of all those who the Lord loves, and your name is on the top of the list!!!"
This was the greatest legacy my mother left me with. She saw how very much I struggled to please God. She saw that in my efforts to please God, I was setting aside the importance of being kind, and considering people's feelings. And therefore she told me of this poem (which I paraphrased, and which she paraphrased for me) about the how important it is to God that we, as much as we can, avoid being cruel and cold to one another.
This is the nature of the Almighty God I believe in. Why worship, if there is nothing worthy of worship in God?
♬ Nicole Nordeman: Wide Eyed
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