{"id":87,"date":"2012-01-20T17:32:14","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T22:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apertureoflight\/?p=87"},"modified":"2012-01-20T17:37:58","modified_gmt":"2012-01-20T22:37:58","slug":"what-are-we-here-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apertureoflight\/2012\/01\/what-are-we-here-for.html","title":{"rendered":"What are we here for?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I wonder what we think we are really here for. \u00a0If it is not to give others the care and love that they deserve, what else is there? \u00a0We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. \u00a0In the love that we have for God, and the love that He pours into us everyday, it is easy to love others. \u00a0Loving another human being is not a burden or a &#8220;job&#8221;, it is something we should want to do because we recognize the ways that God loves us. \u00a0God loves us despite our imperfections, our hurts and the things we&#8217;ve done to ourselves and other people. \u00a0Forgiveness is the most freeing gift we can ever be given. \u00a0And everyone needs it.<\/p>\n<p>Now I do want to set one thing straight though.. So many people that I have talked to think that Christians view non-Christians as lost souls who just do everything wrong and and won&#8217;t ever be right until they confess that they are sinners. \u00a0Now that just sounds demeaning (in my opinion). \u00a0Yes, we all need forgiveness, unless you think you&#8217;re perfect and i&#8217;m pretty sure nobody would raise their hand and say that they were. \u00a0We need God&#8217;s forgiveness for many reasons. \u00a0For one, not to go crazy. \u00a0Human beings strive for perfection, whether we think we do or not. \u00a0We want to be liked, we want to be loved, we want to be taken seriously, we want to be respected, we want to do what we enjoy and enjoy doing what we do. \u00a0Who doesn&#8217;t? \u00a0But to be honest, do we get what we want in these ways all the time? \u00a0I know that I don&#8217;t. \u00a0I do know that if I didn&#8217;t have God, I would be so hung up on trying to find these things (and failing) that I would start to wonder what life is all about. \u00a0You have to realize that as much as you deserve these things and as much as you strive to find them and think that you are doing all that you can to achieve them, you will fail. \u00a0It&#8217;s just as simple as that. \u00a0I am not at ll trying to be pessimistic, in fact I am trying to show you the complete opposite. \u00a0God knew we were gonna fail. \u00a0He knows we need Him. \u00a0Despite what we think we need in life, what we think will make us happy, God knows a heck of a lot better than we do. \u00a0And He totally shows us. \u00a0We just have to learn how to see Him and learn how to really <strong>listen<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p>So, we all know that our deepest desire is to be loved and accepted. \u00a0That&#8217;s what God wants for us too. \u00a0He does love and accept us, not matter what. \u00a0But it is still our duty to love and accept other people; to care for them despite what we think. \u00a0If someone is nasty to me, I don&#8217;t walk away, I have learned to see their hurt and it only draws me closer. \u00a0People need love and sometimes they don&#8217;t realize how they need it. \u00a0It&#8217;s up to us to love them the way that they need to be loved (And I don&#8217;t mean be all mushy). \u00a0I mean really listen to them and give them what they need (not want) but need. \u00a0So many people just need to be listened to. \u00a0That&#8217;s a way to love them. \u00a0Don&#8217;t you want to be listened to?<\/p>\n<p>I get frustrated when this care and love are not returned, which in many cases it&#8217;s not. \u00a0But you know, that&#8217;s okay. \u00a0I know God provides more than enough love for me (and all people) and I can rest in that. \u00a0I can stop fighting human nature and just let God love me. \u00a0He calls me to love other people. \u00a0He never said it would be easy. \u00a0He said there would be suffering involved. \u00a0But through the suffering, there is joy. \u00a0The joy in giving of yourself to help someone else see the world in a different light, in God&#8217;s light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I wonder what we think we are really here for. \u00a0If it is not to give others the care and love that they deserve, what else is there? \u00a0We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. \u00a0In the love that we have for God, and the love that He pours into&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":431,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What are we here for? - Aperture of Light<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What are we here for? - Aperture of Light\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes I wonder what we think we are really here for. \u00a0If it is not to give others the care and love that they deserve, what else is there? 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