Two opposing principles are at work in the world
in which man lives. Although most people enhance themselves at the expense
of others (the Lucifer Principle), the rich, full, and complete life can be
experienced only when an individual enhances others at his expense (the
Jesus Principle). Abundant life is only experienced in others.
Even when others become the object of kind, loving, and benevolent
actions, the mystery of life is still not understood. Others are not to be
the objects of one’s life. If anyone becomes only the object of one’s
affections, then the bestower of that affection is flirting with idolatry.
In the mystery of what it means to be created in the image of God, others
must actually become the individual’s ground of being. In the Judeao-Christian
mindset revealed in the Scriptures, what it means to be a person cannot be
defined in the light of an isolated individual. Others are always needed to
complete the person as a person.
God is One, but He is Three-in-One. Created in the image of God, man must
express that godliness in threeness. Connections in love, the manifestation
of love in the relationship of at least two people (oneness in threeness) is
the connection of life. It is the only way to experience the rich, full, and
complete life.
This life of love in the connections can be illustrated by the parable of
the sower:
It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the
earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is
sown, it growth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out
great branches; so that the fouls of the air may lodge under the shadows
of it. (Mark 4:31-32)
Connections of life, when they begin, are like the smallest of seeds
planted in one’s life. Yet, if the relationship is allowed to grow to
maturity, the process, the growing together of two to become one, becomes
the greatest event of their lives.
The germinating relationship between a man and a woman, the most basic
connection of life, becomes the ground of being for each other. When both
members of the relationship are continually experiencing the growing process
of the relationship, the knowing of each other then becomes a never-ending
noble adventure in the experiencing of life. The knowing of another is
always the joy of life.
Moreover, the relationship that is formed between the man and the woman
actually becomes greater than the sum of the two individuals. It radiates
life not just to the two but to all those who "may lodge under the
shadows of it." The two bring joy to all.
This connection is the true witness of the essence of one’s being. One’s
completeness is always the connecting link of love. It is perfection, the
manifestation of love in the connections of life.
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