TLIO Interview with Jim (Part II of IV)

Turn Love Inside Out
Q & A with Jim (Part II of IV)

Jim, some people may think you are putting too much emphasis on love. What about people who say that the problem of sin and God’s holiness are just as important?

A lot changed for me once I began interpreting spiritual things through God’s Love. I went to seminary and had classes on “hermenutics,” which is about identifying a methodology for interpreting spiritual writings like the Bible. Now I see that “Love” is the best “hermeneutic.” In other words, see all things as an expression of God as Love. As Love, God desires every person to experience all that he wants to freely give. When we “fall short” (sin) of experiencing this, God is grieved. God doesn’t look at humankind through eyes of disgust, but eyes of Love. God “hates sin,” because he seeks our best. God passionately resists anything less than this because he Love us. What is God’s best? It is himself! Knowing God and being one with God, as Jesus prayed we would experience, is the key to our fulfillment and freedom. This is what God desires for all humankind.

For me, Jesus Christ has been central for my working through this because I have learned from Christ there is no separation between myself and God. I realize there are ways I “fall short” of embracing and experiencing God’s best for me, and I am prone to make this fact a barrier between myself and God. The cross tells me all is forgiven, and the empty tomb tells me I am free to live in the present reality of God’s kingdom.

There are an infinite number of ways a person is drawn to the Truth. Experiencing God’s unconditional acceptance was huge for me. Turn Love Inside Out is not about pushing some new formula for changing the world or the latest bandwagon everyone should jump on in order to be spiritually hip. A few of us compared notes and discovered that Love has been instrumental in waking us up to what God makes available to us in every moment. The power of Love as I’ve experienced and witnessed its impact in other’s lives, is that it meets every person where they are, and has a way of dislodging a person from whatever is holding them back or hindering them.

Give me some examples of “being love.”

For me, it began as a radical shift in how I view people. The tendency is to see and interact with people based on our sensory perceptions – what they look like, the attitude or behavior they are expressing, and our human stereotypes and prejudices. The Bible says “I have the mind of Christ,” which means I am capable of discerning the spiritual identity of other human beings. Sure we might not Love at times, but our behavior and attitudes don’t create our identity; rather, our identity creates our behavior and attitudes. Whoever a man thinks he is, determines what he says and does. If God is Love and I am his creation, then I am Love. What does that mean? Doesn’t it least have to mean that we are capable of experiencing and expressing Love?

What if we started telling people they are Love, as images of God? How do we tell them? We Love them! We express Love, which stimulates their awareness of Love. I can’t make a person experience Love. I don’t need to; the capacity to know Love is already within them. What I can do, however, through the expression of Love is stimulate their awareness of Love’s presence inside them. So you ask, “Okay, how do you express Love?” Well, that’s sort of like asking how you breathe. Breathing is simply what we are physiologically wired up to do. Likewise, Loving is what we are spiritually wired up to do. In other words, when we Love we are most being like God. When we are living from our essential nature as creations of God, we Love.

Loving thoughts, spoken words, body language, physical touch, momentary interactions with others, acts of mercy and kindness, creating and sharing images of Love through song, art, photography and all creative forms, giving others attention, being fully present and listening to others, affirming the spiritual identity of others, are all expressions of Love. Any and every expression motivated by Love or in Love matters! No expression of Love is wasted.


(photo by Skyler J.)