| A mind to Love |
| One day when I was talking with my friend Bose, he
asked me, “Giju in your opinion which is the most valuable asset
in the world?” Since I didn’t know about that, I replied,
“I don’t know.” Then he told me the most valuable
asset in this world is “A mind to love.” I asked him “what
happened to you? When did you start thinking like this?” (he
was a good business man). Bose replied that he got this opinion from
the biography of a famous person. |
| On another occasion, when I was watching a TV channel
talk show with a famous person, the guest of the talk show told the
channel reporter that in his life he never enjoyed or tasted peace
of mind. Hearing this, the reporter asks the famous man, “is
this correct for a person like you to say this? You, who started your
life in a small way and later through hard work succeeded and became
a role model for others?” Then the famous person replied that
in his life so far, he had never met a person who enjoyed total peace
of mind and he asked the reporter a question – “Have you
ever met a person enjoying peace of mind in your life?” |
| Then the channel reporter very shrewdly changed the
topic to another one for discussion. |
| During our college days there was a family get together.
People of our age group were discussing how to make money and become
famous. Then one of our relatives, who is a psychiatric doctor, joined
our group. He advised us never try to love money or go for it. Being
young we told our uncle, “the whole world is working to make
money and power, then how can you talk like this?” He replied
that most of today’s youngster’s role models are patients
of doctors like him. |
| And he added that most of his successful patients call
him at midnight, saying that, for the last three days they were not
able to sleep, they have taken all the medicines the doctor prescribed
for them and they ask, “What do we have to do? Please help!” |
| At that young age that advice was not acceptable to
us. |
| There is no guarantee that I can enjoy the peace of
mind with hard earned money or with powerful positions or with people’s
acceptance. |
| It was one of my greatest desires to have “a
mind to love.” If I can love myself, it’s very easy to
love others. |
| Here I shall share a misunderstanding about God, which
Jesus showed me when I prayed for “A mind to love.” |
| From childhood when I started to learn about the Genesis
Chapter, explaining the words related to Adam and Eve, the question
I always asked was, “why did God never protect Eve and Adam
from the Devil?” From that moment onward I doubted in my mind
whether God actually loved Adam and Eve. I doubted that God, who never
loved Adam and Eve in the beginning, could ever love me. I got the
freedom to clear this doubt only when I learned that God never punished
Adam and Eve in the beginning. |
| It is written in Psalms 27:10 |
“My father and mother may abandon
Me,
but the Lord will take care of me.” |
| I asked then why God never protected Eve and Adam from
the Devil? |
| One day I was able to meet Father Michael Panachikkal
in my home town, Kottayam. I shared this doubt with Father Michael. |
| He replied that, it is only because of God’s
love that God created human beings like himself and gave them the
power over the fishes, the birds and all animals, domestic and wild,
large and small, and over the earth, (Genesis 1:26-28). Father Panachikkal
said it’s because of God’s love God gave the freedom to
Adam and Eve to select from the tree that gives life or the tree that
given knowledge of what is good and bad (Genesis 2:9) |
| Father added that if Adam and Eve misused the freedom
God had given to them, then God knew that he could save them from
the Devil’s lies only through his son, Jesus Christ. |
| After this meeting with Father Michael I went through
Genesis Chapter 1, 2 & 3. Then Jesus cleared the doubt that ruled
my mind from my childhood. |
From that moment onwards, I was able to pray from my
heart for the people who had given me the wrong knowledge about God
and for the people who had given me the knowledge that God punished
Adam and Eve in the garden and for the people who had given me the
knowledge that God did not protect Adam and Eve from the
Devil in the garden. |
| Then Jesus gave me a thought that I am sharing with
you. |
| I can receive a person in my mind only when I love
him and believe in him from my heart. In the same way I give a person
freedom, only when I believe in him and love him from my heart. When
God created Adam and Eve in his likeness Jesus showed me that God
loved them from the very beginning itself. And when he gave them the
freedom to eat from the tree that gives life or the tree that gives
knowledge of what is good and what is bad, Jesus showed me that God
loved them from the beginning itself. |
| God never wanted to control human beings like a remote
controlling machine. He never wanted to interfere in our freedom. |
| From this, Jesus showed me that God loved me in the
same way and God has given me the freedom to choose either the life
giving Jesus or the Devil. |
| When I believed God’s blessing came through money,
power and other material things, I was not able to believe that God
loved me, so I loved money. When I started to see God through Jesus’
work and Jesus showed me God loved me from the beginning itself, then
only did I start to believe God really loved me. |
| John 18:37: Jesus answered Pilate, “You say that
I am a king. I was born and came into the world for this one purpose,
to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to
me.” |
| Jesus said this word to Pilate when he was persecuted.
Through this word Jesus made it clear that he was born and he came
into this world to speak the truth about God, Sin, God’s judgment,
God’s love and to reveal Jesus to man’s spirit. I can
receive this truth in my spirit only through the Holy Spirit. That’s
the reason why he told the human race through his disciple that man
should work, fast and pray only for the Holy Spirit. When Jesus reveal
God, God’s love in Jesus and Jesus himself to my Spirit I will
start to love God, love myself and love others. |
| When I went through the words about love, through St.Paul
in 1 Corinthians 13, then only did I realize the depth of God’s
love in Jesus. |
|
I may be able to speak the languages of
men and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more
than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. |
|
I may have the gift of inspired preaching: I may have
all knowledge and understand all secrets: I may have all the faith
needed to move mountains – but if I have no love, I am nothing. |
|
I may give away everything I have, and even give up
my body to be burnt – but if I have no love, this does me no
good. |
|
Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited
or proud; |
|
Love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; |
|
Love does not keep a record of wrongs; |
|
Love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the
truth |
|
Love never gives up; |
|
And its faith, hope and patience never fails |
|
Love is eternal |
|
There are inspired messages, but they are only temporary; |
|
There are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but
they will cease; |
|
There is knowledge, but it will pass |
|
For our gifts of knowledge and of inspired messages
are only partial; |
|
But when what is perfect comes, and then what is partial
will disappear. |
|
Paul continued in 1 Corinthians 13:13 |
|
Meanwhile these three remain faith, hope, and love; |
|
And the greatest of these is love. |
