TO LOVE AS GOD LOVES
As Christians, we try to love as God loves—God, of course, and our neighbors as ourselves. And we love our creature friends, beloved pets, and those wild things we share earth with: birds, fish, creepy-crawlies, farm animals, all those amazing inhabitants of woods, plains, shores, mountains, and all those unseen, microscopic creatures that nevertheless play significant roles in LIFE. Some of these we love to hate! We think they are a nuisance, a danger, or just useless. I put mosquitoes in that category. They love me. I hate them and their itchy, achy bites. And they do carry disease!
But it's some of the humans we share this earth with that really snag us up sometimes. We each can think of one or more of THEM — either personally or categorically that we love to hate. But, my friends, Jesus taught us to love our enemies, do good to them, feed them if they are hungry, shelter them if they are cold.
Now I know we all agree in theory, while we sometimes think we won't ever be put to the test. Yet such a test could come at any time and probably has already. Maybe we missed it. Maybe we ignored it. Maybe we just refused. I know firsthand that it takes a humble heart to reach out to that one we just don't like, just don't want to reach out to. Maybe deep down we are afraid.
Fear is often at the center of our failures. Sometimes, fear is legitimate. There may be real dangers. But perhaps more often, the fear we feel is only in the abstract. We may imagine a danger that is not remotely likely to occur. We fear being laughed at. We fear feeling stupid. We fear being rejected in our offer to help. Yes, all those can and do happen. And we sometimes fail whether they do or not.
Failure, my friends, is at the heart of humility. When we think we never fail, we are always right, always the best; we then isolate ourselves up in our tower of perfection. Just think about it. It's those who always think they are right or the best that the rest of us may least want to befriend or help in difficult times. Most of those will be knocked off their towers of perfection sometime or other. Sometimes such a fall brings the one to humility. But there is no guarantee, as shame is a powerful determinant often driving denial or blame on others.
For most of us, our failures are meant to grow humility, not shame. And here is the Good News, and I quote from the book of the same title as this writing, "...grace does not come just once to open our eyes...it comes again and again...as grace and human effort come together leading us deeper into love" (p. 39).
Grace and love go together. They build each other. They are what makes possible our loving the unlovable or the difficult to love. And again, it takes a humble heart.
I offer these thoughts in part because of the volatility of feelings around our country these days. Many of us are caught up in the hot topics and issues of the coming election. Some of us may be drawing lines between self and others deemed questionable, worrisome, or just plain wrong.
I will be hosting a prayer vigil on election day morning here at the church. It will be prayers only, no discussion of personalities or issues. It is intended to draw us into harmony with the thing that ties us together—namely, our Christian baptismal vows to love and serve. I hope many of you will join me. Together we will put grace and love into the atmosphere, send hope and faith into the world around us, and strengthen our own faith while growing our humility. There are many things we personally cannot change. Yet, we have the power to bless the world through prayer.
And by the way, it's not too late to join the Tuesday book discussion group. We meet at 4:00 p.m. on Zoom for an hour of congenial conversation. The link is below. I'll see you there.
In Christ's love,
Nancy+
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