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Written by Pastor Abby Davidson

If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

2 Timothy 2:13

Our teens will be reading through the book “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller this Fall. It’s a book of short essays about the intersection of life and Christian spirituality. In one section, he writes about an experience he had at seminar where the lecturer asked everyone to throw out words they use to describe relationships and love. Words like invest, value and priceless came up… all economic metaphors.

The author goes on to describe how in our culture we tend to think of love as a commodity; something that can be bought, sold and earned. This concept is something we see, hear and feel every day. Even children know that good things come to those who earn them. Good behaviour earns you praise, doing homework earns you good grades, studying earns you a degree, hard work earns you a paycheque and so on.

That’s not the type of love that God offers us.

So what do we do with this God who wants to freely lavish his love upon us? How does that fit into our earning mentality? And how can we mirror that love for others when we struggle to accept it for ourselves?

We can start by admitting to ourselves that there is nothing we can do to earn God’s love. Nothing. Regular tithing, a pristine Sunday church attendance record and being kind to that lady next door aren’t going to get you a spot in God’s good graces (though these are all good things to do).  Yes, we’re called to obey God but our obedience does not and cannot earn his love in any way. His love is freely given with reckless abandon. That will never change because God is love.

Obedience then is a natural response to God’s love for us. We love because he first loved us (1 Jn 4:19). God’s love for us is so vast that once we experience it, it overflows out of us and affects everyone we come into contact with. So let’s stop trying to deserve what we already have. God sees you as you are (not as you think you should be) and he loves you.

Meditate on that this week.