You Loved Us First.

I was at a Forum Leader's meeting on Sunday. Sarah and I are going to be leading a forum discussion based on the messages at Embassy on Wednesday nights, so for the past couple weeks we've been meeting with other forum leaders for some training and discussion.

Yesterday we read a series of prayers by Soren Kierkergaard, which were pretty inspiring. I wanted to share a bit of my favorite one,

"You have loved us first. O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You- You are the first- You have loved us first; if I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me. You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You. You are the first and thus forever. And yet we always speak ungratefully as if You have loved us first only once."

This stood out to me for many reasons, but I think mostly because as someone who has been raised in the Church I think it is so easy to live in the history of Christianity, in the past. It’s easy to say that God loved us first by sending Christ for us while we neglected God. However, in emphasizing this we often neglect to acknowledge that in every second of every day God is loving us first. As I forget him, as I get wrapped up in my own agenda and worries, as I forget to love others, as I act selfishly, even when I think I'm focusing on God, God loves me first deeply, first sincerely, first intensely, first desperately. This adds such an urgency and immediacy to faith.