Musings: Notes From My Daybook

O Thou good Omnipotent, who so cares for every one of us, as if you cared for him alone; and so for all, as if all were but one! Blessed is the man who loves you, and his friend in you, and his enemy for you. I behold how some things pass away that others may replace them, but you never depart. O God, my Father, supremely good, Beauty of all things beautiful, to you will I intrust whatsoever I have received from you, and so shall I lose nothing. You made me for yourself, and my heart is restless until it repose in you. --Augustine (d. 430)

To love others, even enemies, for God's sake is a deep calling and reverses all of my natural tendencies to see others from my own, limited, biased, point of view. Such reordering of priorities meets me on today's journey--where phones' ring and people beckon. And though I can recognize the value of giving back all that I receive from God so that I lose nothing, I also recognize that such a commitment begins in the way in which I relate to my neighbor.

The thing about faith is that it refuses to be placed in neat compartmentalized cabinets. Like a vine with many canes that spread in every direction, living the Christian faith is rooted in one thing--the practice of love.