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Beyond Actions

Pope Francis, in a tweet on August 22, 2020: “God does not love you because you behave well. He loves you, plain and simple. His love is unconditional; it does not depend on you.”

I believe in God the Father, Creator of existence, and King of Kings. Long ago in my youth, I heard talk of God and how faith without works is dead. Then I heard of “good deeds”. I put the two into a single ideal. One that had me chasing goodness and virtue.

But what if Pope Francis is correct? What if your actions didn’t change the way God felt about you? If he loved you the same when your actions were horrible and destructive? Just as he loved you when you were decent, good natured, humble, and respectful.

The concept of unconditional love from God came much later in my years. But it wasn’t explained well. Confused, I had questions. What is the meaning of “unconditional”?

Word of mouth told me that love had to be this way or it was worth leaving your relationship for someone who would care stronger for you. Who would love you in poverty and in wealth, sickness and… well, you understand.

As a writer, I see conditions as the spring board into conversations about setting, characters responding to their environment, from the “dark and stormy night” to the light of the morning. I focus mostly on the ability to adapt to conditions that may begin adversely, yet are conquered by good deeds in the end to restore peace with lessons learned.

With that definition, clearly no matter what the conditions, God loves you. Loves us all.

I can see how easily one can say that this is God’s blindspot. Where he turns his eyes and his back on the world and that love is just the policy of a sovereign entity. This is a mistake.

God is still affecting the universe.

In fact, consider the circle of life. Catastrophes that lay waste to life, home, and nature. Viral pandemics. Forest fires. School shootings. All of them test our character, pave the way for fresh creation, heighten human awareness, and bring renewal.

When our relatives die, we commit ourselves to higher ideals. With the ache to heal, we grow in our compassion for those who have pain to shed. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

The pope is correct. The Lord does not stop loving you because you behave like an idiot or because you doubt him, or because you haven’t thought about him in a while.

When people die, they are loved in this life and the next. Death is a condition no mortal can deny. Neither does the love of God.

Of course, I cannot guarantee that the afterlife is anything like living. But if you’ll never feel the love of God once your senses leave you, why not now?

At the heart of the Pope’s words is forgiveness, which is a major wonder of God. The beauty of it is alive with Christ. Who died for the sins of mankind so that a sacrifice was made to forgive us of all wrongdoing. Christ himself forgiven for pushing the task away from himself. Praying before his death that his “cup” be taken away by the Father. There was a time our Savior didn’t want to die either.

In the end, Jesus Christ was crucified as an insurrectionist because his miracles took place on holy days, and his words offended high ranking clergy of the day. Man will punish you much worse than God will.

The death of Christ is where the love of God became a legend. The fact that he would give his only son (John 3:16) to guarantee eternal life for those who believe in him. Believing in Jesus is believing in God. The other third of the holy trinity is what visits churches every Sunday and invades worshippers of God when they get radical about Him.

The conditions for the Father’s presence is ultimately a divine mystery. For the son sits next to his father in heaven. But the spirit will visit you when you invite, nay, seek the presence of God.

There is no church building for some. For those of us without a word from a preacher we can agree with, there is still the word of God. The bible has not been replaced by kindest words from popes or flowery butter from politician rhetoric. One far outweighs the other, that being the former over the latter. Yet we that seek His face on our own are buoyed by tweets like Pope Francis’s. It is times like these we feel encouraged, aided, even taught, with so few characters.

The last part of the Pope’s words; “it does not depend on you” are perhaps the most thought provoking of the message. This is an invitation to stop worrying about the behaviors that give you so much guilt. It is for the realm of God, it is His kingdom, his territory to the merit of our lives, actions, decisions, or the conditions in which they occur.

It is His right alone to know all. He is an Ultimate Being. A supernatural entity. Whereas we are merely mortal men, women, and between fit for the use of free will, which is the foundation of humanity.

The love of God does not depend on His creation, it depends on Him. He has promised this love on countless occasions. A good sermon will remind you of these promises. Often.

I will end with this: behave as if you are loved no matter what.

Title: Beyond Actions

Genre: Religious

Ages: All

Word Count: 942

Author: Emmanuel Williams

Why it fits: Some are aiming for bookshelves, others are aiming for the stars, and may they at least find the Moon. I will be aiming for the Pulitzer Prize.

Hook: A picture of the Pope + the Title.

Synopsis: A Sunday-style message about the love of God.

Audience: Literally everyone.

Bio: Very humble beginnings. Penniless childhood led me to fear my peers and read from authors like Brian Jacques, Rowling, and Shakespeare as I hid in my bedroom. But since I’ve been reading Malcolm Gladwell and Carlos Ruiz Zafon- since I began to take writing seriously- and since I refuse to believe in a one-way path, I may write fiction here or there, but I will always have something to say, and the best way to say it is usually in essay form. I have yet to pen the full manuscript. But life isn’t over and nor is the dream.

Platform: Honor and Faith.

Experience: I’m a committed writer. Have always been told that I have a knack for the english language and I agree. In all humorous arrogance. But I have no experience reaching out to an agency for representation on any level. I have my mind, I have the talent, I can tell a story, and best of all, I have ambition. Come on, wink if you have ambition.

Personal Style: Ogre? Perhaps Hobbit? But mostly a benevolent elf, who makes grammar mistakes, sometimes isn’t humorous at all, but instead of tone, I give you words. Actual, individual, words themselves. My words shall speak for themselves.

Likes: Breaking records. And I like music. Rock to Hip Hop to Country to Radiohead. But I love Coldplay. As for hobbies, this is it. I write. And I love it too.

Hometown: Denver, Colorado.

Age: 32

Thank you, #Trident.