Three Words

Here it is.  My opinion.  Utah has a very high rate of suicide, and one of the highest rates of prescription drug use and death by overdose in the country.  I daresay that any community where there is a dominant religion or culture has a high rate of despair, by virtue of the fact that everyone is trying to follow the same path.  I'm not blaming religion, of course.  But because there will always be someone further along the proscribed path than us, every one of us can feel like we're not good enough.

This isn't just a religion question.  I see young people feeling woefully inadequate in school, in extracurriculars (things that don't have any real bearing on anything, but seem like they do), in college, in the question of what to do with their lives.  There is a standard in any community, whether we like it or not, and anyone who falls short of that standard, which is everyone, at one time or another, feels like there is no way to recover, especially if they're young enough that their brain isn't fully developed.  I know mental illness is a chemical issue, but it's not JUST a chemical issue.  There has to be something we can do to keep our precious young people from stepping in front of trains.  They have to know that they are going to make it.

As we struggle, the one thing that I think it would help to keep in mind is that God loves us, but unconditionally.  Our religions are a way for us to draw closer to God, to feel His love more in our lives, and to guide our discipleship.  What religion is not, is a tool to make God love us more, or a way to keep track of when He loves us less, based on our actions.  God's love for us encompasses everything He has created.  We don't get to decide whether He loves us, or how much.  We are not in charge of that equation.  There isn't even a "how much."  We cannot control God's infinite love by our actions, and we certainly don't get to decide if God loves someone else, based on their actions.  You may say it's more complicated than that, but just for this Christmas season, let's uncomplicate it.  In our internal dialogue, and in our conversations with each other, let's try to stop the sentence before it gets to the conditional part.  "God loves you and wants you to..."  "God loves you, if you will but..."  "God loves the sinner but..."

Just stop before that big if, and or but, and just wrap your head around that first part, because in the end, it's only those first three words that matter.  They're so much bigger than all the rest of the words, we don't even have the capacity to fully understand them.  It would take us a lifetime to begin to comprehend the enormity of those three words, let alone act on them perfectly, so let's just leave the other words aside, all of them.  It's fine if we never even get around to thinking the other words.  Sometimes the other words are where fear lives, and misunderstanding and discouragement.  The first three words are enough to fill us with all the love we need, for ourselves, for everyone else, and for God.  How you want to pursue opening yourself up to that love is another question, but take a break from quantifying and comparing and just know...that it's OK.  God Loves Us.  That's all.  We're doing fine.  We'll make it.