The purpose of loving encounters.

The purpose of loving encounters is to be present in strength-giving as well as strength-receiving. Nonjudgmental love is reaching out and embracing. This subject of strength, therefore, is very different from the common understanding of what is meant by being strong. Strong has nothing to do with what you can offer. Strong, being strong, the reality of strength has everything to do with outreach.

To embrace another means you are in contact with one another. You value another. You cherish another. You affirm the sacredness of another. All of that belongs to reaching outward. In moments of stress and anxiety, accept the fact that God’s strength comes from others, and when you are in a place to be more loving, accept the reality that your strength in serving as a part of God is your nonjudgmental embrace, your loving outreach, your care, your compassion, the prayers you offer for those in special need. Each soul has this inner core of strength. It is a potential that belongs to all, so exercise your capacity to be giving with love.

Some have the capacity to allow themselves to be vulnerable, but there are many who find it difficult to exist on either side of the embrace, on either side of the exercise of strength. When you ask God for strength, you are asking God to allow your arms to be open. God’s presence is indeed everywhere. Goodness and loving kindness are offered from all directions and from all sources.