Losing hope?

“To live in love is to live in life, and to live in life is to live in love,
To me, life is God’s gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to God. Make it a fantastic one”-Leo Buscaglia
There is no doubt we face many challenges in life. There are days when we wonder if we can make it, days we want to just quit our jobs, turn over our children to the local orphanage and scream. There is news that falls on our souls with a thud, and we feel burdened, wondering how we can take the next step in our lives. The above quote has been on my desk for the last couple of weeks and I have taken comfort from this insight. God gives us life, our lives are a gift to God. The intersection of the cross is a helpful reminder to me of the heart of life, that moment when the pain of this life is met with the love of God. It is a reminder for me to dwell in the heart of God, to find that place where the problems and pains of my life are met with the abundant love of God.
I was listening to a program about how in the time of disasters, people come together to support one another. Neighbors, sometimes who have never spoken, will help one another through the crisis, putting their lives on the line in some cases for perfect strangers. I think of the firefighters who have been fighting these wildfires in the mountains above my home, and I am amazed at the commitment they have to protect houses, lives of those who people they may never meet.
It is hard to sustain that sort of neighborliness after the tragedy is over, yet this is exactly what I think we need to do when Jesus calls us to love our neighbors. We need to reminders of the love of God which sustains us in our every day disasters, challenges that cause us to give up hope.
I believe the key is allowing ourselves to be open to how God calls us to live in the midst of the reality of life, it is not up to us to fix life, only to live with love, to give to one another the love from our hearts. Today is the perfect opportunity to start loving God, and one another so the world will be a more fantastic place for everyone.