God's Face

My friend Mike put on a conference today. I could not make it to the conference because of work. Oh well. You do what ya gotta do for your family. He brought in Scot McKnight to talk about his book/way of life called The Jesus Creed. My understanding of this is that you repeat to yourself as often as you can, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Deut. 6:4-5)" and then Jesus adds an important amendment in Mark 12:31 "and love your neighbor as yourself". But this is to be more than just a mantra. The idea is to ingrain it into your mind and heart so that you actually act and react in love to everyone with whom you come in contact. To me, that can be pretty tough stuff: it's fairly easy for me to love those who love me or who even just like me, but somewhat harder to love "my enemies" or even those who just annoy me!:) One of the chapters in the book 40 Days: Living the Jesus Creed has to do with seeing God's "face".

"For us to be empowered by that face, we have to turn our face to God by gazing at God and by talking to God. If we fake it, we offer to God nothing but a facade. If we face God honestly by offering our true face to God, we discover in God the face of love. We discover that 'God is love'. The Jesus Creed begins in the face of God, for until we see in the face of God the love God has for us, we will not find the strength to love God, to love ourselves, and to love others" (all bold and italics mine)

This made me think of a song by Sanctus Real. Here are the lyrics:

The Face of Love
I’ve seen your face on stained glass, in colored lights
In pictures of you looking to the sky
You been portrayed a thousand different ways
But my heart can see you better than my eyes
‘Cause it’s love that paints the portrait of your life

The face of love
The face of love
You look more like love everyday

I’ve read your words in the pages of your life
And I’ve imagined what you were like
I may not know the shape of your face
But I can feel your heart changing mine
And your love still proves that you’re alive

You are the face that changed the whole world
No one too lost for you to love
No one too low for you to serve
So give us the grace to change the world
No one too lost for me to love
No one too low for me to serve
Let us see…
Let us be your face

Quite challenging...