Today's World Has Turned Into A Culture That Cannot Accept Love

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy [Proverbs 27:6]

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Pop Psychology today's mantra of a ''Do what thou wilt'' attitude seems to be directly extracted from English oculist Aleister Crowley's library. To name but a few, we have LADY GAGA's ''Do what you want'' song title, JAY Z promoting Crowley's sick teachings and Justin Bieber's lyrics stating to a former girlfriend '' Baby, you should go and love yourself'' . The list goes on. It's no wonder that people seeking emotional help are regularly told '' the root of their problem is that they don't love themselves enough''. It is a distorted way of looking at life and emotional distress, but there is a grain of truth in it, if we are awake enough to find it.

We are on a lifelong journey, a discovery of ourselves and our purpose. Step back, and think of the life of a cow for a moment.
The cow never has to question what their life is about, or even what dinner table it will end up on. Yet, it knows how to love itself - it avoids pain and grazes on.
Lots of us go about our daily lives under this example. Waking up in the morning, going to work, paying taxes, avoiding pain and snatching brief moments of happiness. But at some point along our journey, very few of us come to realize that this is not a satisfying or even correct view of life.
We were made for greater things.

It's extremely frustrating and distressing if we can find no point of direction to where those greater things or ''perfect happiness'' might lie, if we are being told that hope is ultimately doomed. A confidence distortion conjured up by the ''higher ups'' as a form of control. No surprise then, that so many people turn to drugs, sex, obsession with work or sport,happy pills, consumer goods or to bitter anger expressed in protests and even violence.

Yet, when love is real it finds a way.- A family caring for a sick grandmother, parents devoting themselves to their children, the million acts of kindness we receive often but take for granted daily. The Purpose or meaning of our lives is a bit like a car engine, even when we are not thinking about it, when it seems to be the last thing on our minds,it is still driving us along. But just like that engine, the question of our lives also needs regular attention. Love brings us back to the ''meaning'' question. Love is the beginning, the middle and the end of our journey.

Is loving others better than selfishness? , Why, who or what should I love?, why should I love if it costs me?

There are also many people who yearn to love, but feel unable to do so. They contract from physical contact, fear rejection, or feel emotionally frozen, disconnected. Such feelings can lead to intense anxiety, isolation and loneliness.
This new age ideology of a ''love yourself'' attitude is a poor answer to the big question- Am I worthy of love?
Love begins in the home, therefore, it is the parents and family who answer that question long before we even ask it. They, just as importantly, train us how to accept love and respond to it. When things go wrong in the home, through lack of affection, cruelty, alcohol problems, violence or family breakdown we feel the opposite of feeling loved and can reject it altogether as a result.
Long before psychologists, the great insight of Christianity was the realization that we are lovable because we are loved by God. The whole Christian teaching on creation comes down to this, that God loved each one of us into existence, and in doing so, he freed us to be able to accept and to give love.

Only a culture that has lost it's way, like modern culture has, would think that our answer to isolation and loneliness is to ''love ourselves'' How wrong that advice is when compared to the call to understand the depths of God's love for each and every one of us. Reflecting on this *love is where we learn that we are lovable.* Even when we rebelled against him, God continued to care for us, sending his Son to save us from the disaster we brought on ourselves. Yet, by pure deceit and manipulation, more and more are closing themselves against God's love.

If the absence of human love can be so harmful in our lives might we not suspect that denying of God's love for us would be so devastating for society, for families and for individuals? Isn't that evident to see? We are all God's children, coheirs with Christ to eternal life. Such expressions attempt to capture the depth of God's care for us, revealed especially in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

They will have you believe there is no God, that life has meaning without his love.

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