God-in-love is not a play on words.  God-in-love tells us how we know God, that is by being-in the love which He is.  If we are in-love, we are in-God.  As I understand it, it is a state of being whereby love pours out of us without effort.  When love is activated, any reaching-out on our part flows from this state of being-inside-of-love.  As we are filled with love’s desire we are possessed by love’s very nature to flow through us.

An example is that of a mother with her newborn child.  The mother does not need to summon up love in order to respond to her child’s need.  The act of co-creating, that is birthing a child, is an act of love.  When co-creating is carried forth into the world we can understand on a deep level the nature of love, the very nature of God’s outpouring.  Being within the experience of God-in-love, we are no longer self-conscious in our response.  For it is God activated within us which now pours out of us.  By being-in ourselves, the Divine is visible.

In order to be aware of ourselves as manifesting God-in-love, we must change our way of relating to God.  We move beyond “performing,” in hopes of gaining special attention by no longer applying the work ethic and trying to demonstrate that we deserve a place in His heart.  To remain in that kind of childish position with God only keeps us further away from knowing God as love.  The child we need to be is one of curiosity, one of play, simply letting the days go by filled with joyful love.

The adult who can allow the child to simply be, prepares the ground for discovery.  Allowing not-knowing, discovery is possible, awakening us to who we are.  The sense of having all the answers to our faith relationship with God is slowly replaced with a humility which sees our place in the scheme of life.  In other words, with the awareness that we don’t have it all-together leads us into a position to ask for help, guidance, support, often with a renewed openness to discovery.

If we are caught by the responsibility of trying so hard, we might not notice the effortless love pouring out of our being.  No amount of work, no amount of searching will get us there.  A there that is not a place special to God’s favor but a there which is a presence soaking up the love of God.  It is never by our effort to succeed, our effort to impress.  It is by our commitment to be quiet and shift the tone we live by.  Neither agitated nor demanding answers—just the sense that we are sinking into the softness of His Being.  And we come to that softness as we stop trying to win over love.

Love by its very definition is self-giving.  Love pours out of itself like a waterfall or spring which is eternal.  Rather than love being an attempt on our part to secure by “good works” our place in another’s heart, it is by relaxing all effort, love finds its way into to every interest we are drawn.  In relationships we find this particularly true with one’s ability to step out of the way and allow one’s heart to just give of itself.  When this occurs it melts another because the love is genuine.  Any aid will naturally come from being-inside who we are.  We will not have to think about what to do in order to show our love.  It will simply become the air “we” breathe.

In an environment of love acting on its own accord, all demands and expectations are relegated to second place.  Instead of placing demands on the love we receive, we open up to love as it shows itself.  Likewise in our relating with God we put aside our  expectations of how we are to act in order to let the flow of His love permeate our being.  We accept ourselves as being full of love because we know we are in-love.  In-love not as an infatuation but as immersion into a state of being whereby we allow the love to pass through us.  And what comes through this love is an energy that heals the deepest wounds, of despair, cynicism, judgment, betrayal, inertia, and most powerfully apathy.  Love’s power is self evident with no need to proclaim it.  It simply acts out of itself, softening the ground on which it lands.

The opening of the heart becomes the avenue to love pouring out.  But what exactly do we mean by this often repeated command: Open your heart?

God-in-Love (Part II) will address this question.