Flannery O'Connor, the short story novelist, described the culture around her as "haunted by Christianity." Faith feels more like angst in the human heart rather than a help to living an active life of love.
Saint Paul tells us,"that no one is justified before God by the law...the one who is righteous by faith will live (Gal 3:11).” The Lord loves us first, searches us out, and calls us by name to relationship with Him. We respond by living purposely a life of love, where love is no mere sentiment, but consists of works or deeds. We do not earn salvation, for salvation is freely given to us and yet we cooperate with God in our salvation, as Paul describes, "so then, my beloved... work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 3:12)."
The idea of living a life of love is sweeter than its practice. If we were to begin to make a list of our "assets and liabilities," we would find in the beginning that we could multiply the number of good works in the hopes of diminishing our liabilities. Eventually, though the assets would become liabilities as the perceived assets would crowd out first the intuitive voice of God within us, then our duty, if we still recognized it as such, and ultimately inhibit the work of God within us. We become haunted by Christianity, afflicted by an angst masquerading as faith, and confused as to why the whole undertaking did not work! The day arrives when we realize that all we have done is built a Tower of Babel just as unable to reach the heavens as the first tower (Genesis 11).
So, we end up where we started. God loves us and loves us in spite of our faults and with disregard to our "assets." Each of us lives out a unique story of God's love in our lives. Perhaps, we are to be open to that love and look at our daily encounters and occurrences and pause in prayer. The Lord is here in my midst. What is he trying to say to me?
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