Scripture: Psalm 116; Romans 8: 1-17; Ephesians 3: 14-21
Loving God. That’s the beginning of the Spirit’s work in our hearts and lives, McLaren wrote, that we could become a people who actually love God. For some the name “God” has all kinds of connotations that make the idea of God difficult to love. However, loving God is actually not “so different from loving another human being.” Here’s how McLaren describes that:
“When we speak of loving another human being, we naturally move toward that person in a special way. We appreciate the qualities of the beloved. We respect and honor the beloved’s dignity. We enjoy the beloved’s company and feel curious about the beloved’s personhood. We want to support the beloved’s dreams and desires. And we make ourselves available for the beloved to respect, honor, enjoy, know and support us, too, because to be “in love” is to be in a mutual relationship” (p 212).
Then all these apply to how we love and grow in relationship with God. The bottom line as we grow is to learn deeply that we are not alone, and as people who are loved, we learn to love. That’s it.
Share a story about a time when you felt most “in love” with God.
The call came at midnight into the dorm where I was sleeping with several other guys attending the Annual Conference of the UMC. It was 1995. Karen, my wife, and I had just moved from California the previous year with our four daughters. This was before cell phones. We had wired-in, actual wall phones in each room. It rang and rang before Dexter in the room got up and answered it. He came and woke me. “Hey, Brian. Karen is on the line.”
“What’s up?” I asked into the receiver as I took the phone, and went into the hallway, the long coiled cord through the door back to the phone on the wall inside the room. I sat down on the floor. Karen began to cry. “Honey. I’m sorry to bother you. But something happened tonight that I need to tell you about. Now.”
“Great. I can tell it’s huge. I’m here. Tell me.”
“I had put all the girls down for bed. Then I went to sleep myself. I had trouble falling asleep, but managed. I awoke to this loud knocking at the door and Alex barking and barking. I made my way downstairs turning on the light and spoke through the door: ‘Who is it?’”
“It’s Tina,” the voice responded, “your neighbor from across the street. I have your little girl.”
“I opened the door quickly then and was astounded to see Gabrielle in Tina’s arms. She had just been asleep!”
Tina said, “I was sitting on my porch having a smoke when I heard crying across the street. It was dark and I couldn’t see but it looked like a little person in front of the office building of the church. So, I came across the street and there was your little girl, standing there, in front of the fence, crying.”
I leaned down and said, ‘Honey, why are you crying? Why are you up?’”
“She said, ‘I am looking for my daddy, but he is not here and I cannot find him.’”
“Honey, your daddy is out of town,” Tina said, “but I know your mama is home. Let me carry you back to the house.”
Karen continued.
“I took Gabrielle and thanked Tina profusely and then closed the door and locked it. I took Gabrielle upstairs and put her back to bed, in our room, and then went back downstairs and positioned a chair under the door handle of the front door.”
“As I sat down in bed, I journaled out my experience but as I began to tell the story the pictures of what actually had happened unfolded in my mind. I saw what had happened. I saw Gabrielle leave the house. I saw that she was guarded by a double line of angels, linking arms like a fence on each side of her. She had stopped at the office for there the angels blocked her path. They broke arms to allow Tina in to pick Gabrielle up, and then closed ranks around the two of them as Tina carried her back to the door. This I saw and the Lord spoke to my spirit saying we need to be praying. God has a plan that is unfolding and we need extra prayers for our kids.”
I was stunned with the story, but believed it for I knew Karen and trusted her spirit. We prayed together and I felt this immense love for God -- the One who intervenes, cares, and works in all these things of life. Thinking back to the moment I can still feel the fact of His presence.
How do you respond to the comparison between human love and loving God?
What do you think it means, the phrase, “God is love?”