Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, often says, "If it's not about love, it's not about God."
We need to remember his words when we hear people spouting words of hate and prejudice and proclaiming their own words of judgment as "God's Word." In person and on television, there are those who boldly lie to all who will lend an ear. They lie and proclaim that God has told them to speak those vehement words.
But God is not about hate. Not ever. Never ever. Period.
Don't get me wrong--sometimes love is not easy. I think each of us has someone(s) that we struggle to love, or even struggle to barely like. I have found those people are usually the very ones that are, as Anglican priest Emma Percy writes, "correctives to my blind spots." We need to pay attention to those who irritate us because they may be a mirror of our own faults and shortcomings.
How easy it is to sing Amazing Grace and yet how difficult to fully claim that grace for ourselves and to realize that God has given that very same abundance of grace to everyone.
For God so loved the world.... the WORLD. The world is big, so much bigger than any one individual or any single group of people.
Love is big, too. Really, really big.
Don’t ever be fooled by those who lie and lie so well. Because the truth is this:
"If it's not about love, it's not about God."
I love your writings - they are spot on!!