What happens when you come face to face with divine love? I am not talking about love as the world would define it – offering affection with the expectation of getting something in return.
I mean the kind of love that shows forgiveness and compassion to a person who is guilty of unimaginable things – dark secrets and evil decisions? How do you respond when you experience grace but you know you don’t deserve it?
The apostle Paul would answer this question by saying “Christ’s love compels us” to stop living for ourselves and, instead, live for Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). He died so that we could live. But this gift of new life is not meant to enable us to squander more living in foolish pursuits. This gift of a new creation is meant to compel us to live to honor Jesus daily with our attitudes, thoughts and actions.
We were not created to live for ourselves but rather to live beyond ourselves. Thomas Merton puts it this way:
To go out of ourselves is to act at the very summit of our being, not moved by our own nature but moved by God Who is at once infinitely above us and Who yet dwells in the depths of our being. . . . A perfect act of faith should, at the same time, be a perfect act of humility.
How will you respond to the realization of Christ’s love for you? What will you be compelled to do?
How will you live outside of yourself today?
Clay in the Hands 
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