Grace and Love

John 14:15” If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

Remember those pictures that if you looked one way you saw an old crone, but another way you saw a beautiful woman? What you saw depended on which prominent feature your eyes first picked out. It was amazing when someone else showed you how to see the other image.

Reading St. Augustine’s words on John 14:15 was that kind of experience for me. I never saw the grace in this verse, only the guilt. Reacting to these words of Christ as if they are just another commandment to keep is natural. Our parents, teachers, pastors, and society all tell us that if we are ‘good people’ we will keep the rules. This verse sounds just the same.

But what if you look at that verse like someone in love? When you are in love and when you love someone it just oozes out of you. Giving, caring, loving, helping, thinking about them, trying to make their life easier, pleasant, joyful; these things flow out of a heart of love. When someone is precious to you the natural response is a desire to do what they request.

If this verse means, as Augustine believed, that the more we fall in love with Christ the easier doing his will becomes, then Christ was not giving us yet another commandment to keep; he was showing us how to live. He says; focus on me, not on yourself (your actions, behavior, good deeds or lack thereof). He invites us to enjoy him, love him, and immerse our very being in him. When he is the focus of our lives “his commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3

The old question, “When your teacup gets bumped, what sloshes out?” is no longer about how good I am, but how loving him has infused my being.

Focus on him, love him, enjoy him, and delight in his gifts; being who he wants you to be will come naturally.

Can it really be that wonderfully simple?

Inspired by the Legacy of Sovereign Joy by John Piper.

Trip down ER lane

Since my trip to the ER I have been in a quandary as to what to write. This is only my second emergency trip in 55 years. That’s pretty good! But it also makes such a trip rather salient in the memory. How did I act, what did I say, what did this really mean, what should I be learning from this experience - all swirl around in my head with oh my gosh what if it happens again!

Several things stand out in my mind:

The comfort of family gathered around. What a blessing to see and feel the evidence of known love and sensed prayers. Thanks to all of you who eased that day.

The Fear Factor. Nothing compares to the imminent realization of mortality and the pain that accompanies it. Nothing. This week the still small voice said, “But God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” I forget so easily His way and rejoice that He gently reminds me … this is not of Me.

The intense desire to be reading something that is soul filling. John Piper’s Legacy of Sovereign Joy is my current passion. It focuses my mind off myself: always a good idea.

An attitude of kindness towards myself. So I take long baths and ignore the kitchen, I eat chocolate and ignore the scale. I say no more, and don’t always finish all my tasks at work immediately. Reverse discipline is sometimes harder! But it is helping. I might just continue this kindness and extend it more to those around me.

So, if you need a little kindness, give yourself a break. Bring your suit, come on over and we'll share some cookie dough in the hot tub.

Changes

I love the time change in the fall! As the thermometer drops and the sunlight diminishes the challenge of getting up on time overwhelms me. I find that I struggle to get to work on time. Any chance for a quiet time in the morning or a relaxing drive to work flies out the window as I race to arrive before my boss. Then – presto chango – I’m waking up early. I have time for a long shower and a lingering look at the Word. My world feels like it’s been put right again by an invisible hand.

I wish all habits were as easy to change. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would just change the clock and one day I’d wake up fixed? No such luck. Life is not that easy. It’s about growing and changing and fighting the good fight.

Maybe heaven will be like waking up and all the clocks that control who I am, what I think and what I do will finally be set right.