Belovedness and Bundt Cake

I have officially been in my discernment year for 50 days, and I feel like I have more reflections and experiences here than I can keep up with, much less blog about. But these are all things I will want to look back on and remember. So here I go.

I'll start with a story that I heard recently:

There once was a professor who came into his classroom and set a donut on each of his students' desks. As his students entered, he told them not to eat the donuts right away. The students each took their seats, and the professor approached the first student and began a conversation:

"Do you want to eat that donut?"

The student, nodded, "Yes."

The professor looked at the student's classmate sitting next to her and asked him, "Would you be willing to do 50 pushups so that your classmate can have this donut?"

The student got to the floor and said, "Yes. I'll do the pushups."

The first student happily ate the donut.

The professor then moved on to the next student, "Would you like your donut?"

"Yes."

The professor turned to the student who was halfway done with the first round of pushups, "Would you do 50 additional pushups so this student to have a donut?"

"Yes. I'll do the pushups."

Another happy student got to eat a donut.

And so it went for the entire class. 100 pushups. 150 pushups. 200 pushups...Some of the students didn't want the donut if it meant that their classmate had to struggle. But each time a student answered that he/she wanted the donut, the student willingly took on more and more pushups. By the time the professor had made it to the back of the classroom, he noticed that the final student had tears in her eyes after observing her classmates receive a morning treat on behalf of one man who, although sore and tired, was also willing to do 50 more pushups for her.

I heard this story on a day when a woman gave an entire classroom a mini bundt cake, asked us not to eat them yet and then told this story. At the end, she happily encouraged us to dig in, saying the story she told us about the professor, donuts, and a suffering servant, isn't too different from the story of Jesus Christ, who gives us His whole self, not just 50 pushups. Our reactions aren't so different from the ones of the students. Some of us happily receive the gift. Others feel guilty for taking the gift. And there may even be some who feel like they are unworthy of the gift. Some of us cry at the generosity of the gift. But it's not about us. It's about Him. He'll give anyway, no matter what, and He doesn't deny His beloved the gift of His complete, self-sacrificing love.

The story got me thinking about whether or not we treat one another as if we are actually beloved. In the current climate, it seems like we mere humans, are the ones who are picking and choosing who is worthy or love and who is not.. We don't seem to see each other as true, flesh and blood human beings with dignity. Instead, we're just numbers, objects to be used. And then we wonder why so many people feel lonely and depressed, inconvenient and insufficient. Seeing people who suffer should be a call to love them more, not an opportunity to reference statistics about how their situation "isn't so bad" or to give them a lesson on how they need to "help themselves." Do you want to change the world? There's only one thing you need to prove, one lesson that people need to be taught: that they are beloved.

These past couple of weeks have taught me that everyone, even the most despicable people I know are worthy of love, and we should want that love for them. It doesn't matter if they're different from me or if they don't agree with me or if they don't think they're worthy or if they reject love or fail to love me. Jesus still willingly laid his life down on the cross and died for them just as much as he died for the greatest saints or for the people I love or for me. We all need that reminder sometimes, especially in times when it seems like the world has run out of love. Those of us who know and embrace this gift should see that since we have the gift, we have the privilege of showing others that they have the same: Jesus died and rose for everyone so we can all have a donut...or a mini bundt cake. He died and rose so we can all know our Belovedness.

FYI, these mini bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes are delicious...highly recommend!