Sex, money and in-laws

As I’ve read some New Year’s resolution ideas in newspapers and magazines, it struck me how hard we are on ourselves and others around some very difficult, complex issues. In particular, I read some financial advice the other day that made me feel like a total loser.

M. Scott Peck once said that sex, money and in-laws are problems for everybody. So true, and it’s not really anybody’s fault that fundamental issues lie in those areas. Struggling with issues of intimacy, security and family-systems is human. Finding loving ways to work through them creatively seems to me to be a primary reason we are here.

I think Jesus came to help us re-value our lives, putting the Living God, people and love first. "Redemption" involves valuing people and things like God does. 

Compassion towards ourselves and others is an important first step in approaching challenging areas of life. We are all in the same boat when it comes to many of those things, including many of our desires. There is usually some healthy desire lurking behind almost all desires, though it often gets messed-up through selfishness or fear. The key to healthy expression is purity of love all the way through.

If we have condemned a part of ourselves, we are prone to condemn that same part in others. It’s like we have placed a log in our eyes in an effort to avoid looking at something, including seeing it in ourselves. That log blinds our ability to have compassion toward that part within us as well as others. As Jesus said, better to first remove the log. We do this by purifying the love moving through us. That’s one of the purposes of the rest that works. I daily ask God to purify and align the love moving through me so that I may better work with the Creative, Redeeming Forces of God. That’s the best way I have found to invite healthy expressions of love, within and without.

More power to you and thanks for journeying together.

Blessings,
Scott