You might think that the title of this post is rather simplistic. But I want to tell you, men, that the ability “to receive” is very difficult for us. We are wired to accomplish and succeed. Our culture conditions us to believe that we get what we deserve. We have to earn our place. By our effort we gain our reputation and place in culture. So the whole business of “receiving” is not easy. This becomes especially difficult in relationship to our heavenly Father. I don’t know about you, but I can very easily get into “the performance mode,” with a focus more on how I am doing rather than how God really sees me. I now know more than ever, that He simply loves me for who I am, created for intimate relationship with him.
I consider the ability to “receive” God’s love into my heart the biggest discover in these ten years of the journey. I John makes it clear and simply: “God is love” (I John 4:8). First and foremost God loves you. I love this quote from Brennan Manning, “The revolutionary thinking that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical thinking and profound emotional readjustment.” As a blogging community of wildmen, that could keep the conversation going for sometime. Here is another quote. This one is from David Benner. Let this roll around your head and heart for a time. “It is not the fact of being loved unconditionally that is life-changing. It is the risky experience of allowing myself to be loved unconditionally.”
I believe this blog community could have a very helpful dialogue about the love of God. I assume most the men who read this blog as “churched’ guys. They know the words of the faith. They have done a lot of the stuff. But to be honest, they do not feel loved by God. It has not gotten into their “soul” that God really loves them. Remember men, as we dialogue about love, it has nothing to do with deserving and earning. As a matter of fact love has already been poured into your hearts, waiting for you to discover what is already there. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 8:5). So there you have it, men. Love waiting to be discovered by wildmen who are discovering their soulfulness.
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