“All men are divine.” During my time in Texas, this line became a mantra, a totem for many of us who were there in Corpus Christi. It was a beautiful affirmation of the worth of each individual and transformed us and those who witnessed us for the better. However, as with all divine messages, when taken alone or out of context, this decree of our worth can be distorted into a self-worshipping destruction of the very thing it should inspire: love.
All of us are indeed divine because of our origin. God lives in each one of us to some degree for He is both Life and Love. God is all around us all the time, whether in the heartbeat of a hummingbird, the photosynthesis of a plant, or the song of a mother to her child. He is in the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our blood. Love is Life and Life is Love.
All love requires some sacrifice. In the case of human relationships, sometimes it’s sacrifice of self for the sake of others and sometimes it’s sacrifice of others for the sake of self. The challenge we humans seem to face in life is knowing which of those two options is the best to choose in any given situation.
We live in an age that teaches us to love ourselves first. It’s really nothing new. Looking out for #1 has been a popular modus operandi since humans came to be. Sometimes, it is necessary to remove ourselves from situations where we are not being loved. Any form of malicious abuse can erode or quickly obliterate our ability to love others, so staying in that relationship accomplishes nothing good. We must leave so love can continue in us and be shared with others.
However, love of self and selfishness are not the same thing. Too often we shrug love off because it isn’t convenient to our purposes, getting in the way of some life plan or ambition. We violate relationships and turn away from love. The zeitgeist tells us we must be fulfilled before we can fulfill others. This has led many people to turn inward, focusing so much on themselves that they become blind, empty, and greedy, voraciously devouring resources to fill a bottomless chasm, further denying their connection to other people and blighting the world around them. While they might have accomplished the ends they initially sought, they are self-exiled, unconnected, alone in a world filled with people. As Jesus said, “…whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matt. 16: 25-26 KJV)
As we see in nature, death is also life, for out of death springs new life. Again, Jesus said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 KJV) When we choose to sacrifice ourselves for others, we give something of ourselves away, a death of sorts. It’s scary. It’s risky. It’s painful. However, new life grows in place of what was sacrificed, transforming us and those for whom we sacrificed into something wholly new. If we choose to nurture the newness with more love, although the healing and new growth can be initially painful, the new creatures that we become are more beautiful and more alive than we were before. Things we thought we needed, things we thought were vitally important to our happiness pale in comparison to the happiness we find in selflessly loving others. This is true in any relationship.
Choose love, my friends. No matter how hard or painful it seems, choosing love is always worth it. Preserving our ability to love is important, but more often than not we are able to do so by staying in the relationship, working through the hard things, choosing love again and again and again. If we do this, then our divinity is truly manifest in every aspect of our being.
We are divine. Choosing to love affirms that divinity. Choose love.
