108 - "Love Those Who Hate You & Hate Those Who Love You" 2 Samuel 19-20

108 What is this---you love those who hate you and hate those who love you? 2 Samuel 19:6. Never hold on to what was not meant for me. To love deeply is what is meant for you. For the Messianic Presence hears all of it. John 1:29. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

                                                         

And they confront David: You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. 2 Samuel 19:6.

How do we do the very same things? O God of Mercy! That I may learn to truly love. To never hold on to what was not meant for me. To love deeply what is meant for me. 

Joab was the spokesperson brave enough to say to David:  I repeat 2 Samuel 19:6 cause this is so powerful. "What is this—loving those who hate you and hating those who love you? Your actions give a clear message: officers and soldiers mean nothing to you...you knocked the wind out of them."  

Why did David grieve his son Absalom at the expense of those alive around him?  What were his tears really for?  Himself?  David prayed in Psalm 25:18 "Lift this ton of sin."  I have so felt the weight of previous sin this week.  Lift the ton, O God!  

God lifted it and immediately David goes back to war with Sheba followed by even more enemies with 24 fingers and toes.  And David prays:  "When I call, give me answers. God, take my side! Once, in a tight place, you gave me room.  Now I'm in trouble again: grace me! hear me!"  Psalm 4:1

"You have listened to my troubles and have seen the crisis in my soul." Psalm 31:7.  The Messianic Presence hears every word. 

John 1:29-51.                                                                                                                                         Nathanael was home when Philip beckoned him to hear the glad news of the Messiah coming to their town. "We found the One." From Nazareth comes the "All Good." Nathanael goes quickly. He is both amazed and startled at Jesus' words to him---as if He knew him. "How do you know me?" asks Nathanael.  We have never seen each other before.  "I saw you under the fig tree," John 1:48--- in the deepest sense, the Messiah was there as Nathanael prayed and thought and wondered in his backyard under the fig tree.  There was an actual "Messianic Presence" in his inmost thoughts and yours too.  

I have to say the same.  As a Catholic schoolgirl for 12 years from 1956-1968, we went to Mass every single day Monday through Friday and every Sunday.  Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. 3200 Canal Street.  New Orleans. The presence of God was there for me in my innermost thoughts as I walked through the iron picketed fence protecting the shotgun house on Palmyra Street every day and scurried one block to Catholic school.  He was there. That was my fig tree and he heard all the heavy-weighing anxieties of my heart as I lived in fear of my mentally ill brother.  He saw my tremulous hopes for my life.  He answered all of my deep pleadings to be safe and sane. All those times I stood with my hand on the front doorknob of my living room waiting to escape and run to Colleen's house. A Messianic Presence waiting with me. The built-in sliding pocket doors separating the rooms. A Messianic Presence standing there. I would not know that Messianic presence personally until 1972.

But God knew me and loved me from the Beginning of the world. "In the beginning was the Word. Without Him was not anything made that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." John 1:1-4 One philosopher said that these verses are "worthy to be written in letters of gold."  

PHOTO: My favorite spot on earth in Eatonville. I learned right here a tiny bit more how to love well.