A Matter of LIfe and Death

God is in me. God is in all people. We look and look for God, and all the time he is right here with us. When we love, he is free to act fully, with all of his power and authority. When we sin, he remains with us, crucified to our destiney. He never goes away. Realizing this, we are faced with our choice: cruicify him, or set him free.

God who is all-powerful, God who is eternal and unchanging chose to do this. He says so himself. "I have given you death and I have given you life. Choose life." We find it difficult to understand how anyone could do such a thing--he who is all-powerful makes himself vulnerable to our choices, and is wounded time and time again, for it is a true death that we give him when we choose badly. Yet, he who lives forever rises again to embrace our next day, our next choice, over and over again until we run out of days. He wants us with him. He wants us to choose love.

Here is the crux of Christian spirituality. The simple difference between life and death. When we choose sin, God suffers death on our behalf so that we might not die. Thus we have time to behold and understand and be converted from the path of death. Not only that, but by choosing life--choosing love--we give others a sign and a vision of hope. It really is so fundamental. We have Christ in us and we are Christ for others to see, until they awaken and understand where they can always find him.

We cannot save ourselves. He has told us it is impossible. But when we love, we turn Christ loose first in ourselves and then in the world, and miracles happen.