WATCHWORD:
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. ‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.’ John 15:10-12
Meditation:
The Good News
The Good News: Your life will be richer if you take joy in the people you love and who love you back.
We are in God’s classroom, and, whether you are attentive or not, you are learning your lessons. If you are like me, the lesson is not learned until the teacher beats you over the head with it time, after time. Take the lesson; “Love one another as I have loved you.” If we did that it would produce joy! We would be happy! We would smile at one another, etc. etc. And, Yet…
Jesus didn’t say ‘I love you as a mother loves her baby’ or ‘I love you the way a husband loves his wife’ or ‘I love you the way an addict loves his dope’. No, the only way He could create a picture was to use the love of the Father for the Son.
Think of it, how could Jesus communicate this Holy Love except by using His Father as the case in point. ‘The love of the Father for You’ His child. Ponder that for a moment, the very suggestion does something within our being. It fills our soul with the sense of profound, deep love that we cannot be fully grasped. All we can do is be His child, and that will be enough.
If we got that second part of the lesson, we aren’t done yet. If you are living that second part, while skipping the first, you are not really living as His child.
Okay, that first part: “Love one another…” Notice, no conditions here. No qualifications. No meeting standards, stereotyping, comparing, etc. Just love as you are loved. Oh, Father that is hard! Then, if you listen carefully, you might hear our Father tell us, “If you think that is hard, you should try on the shoes of the fisherman.”
So, we ask, how do we do that, and the prayer of Brother Thomas Merton comes to mind and “I may believe that the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you…” Ah, so, that ‘love others’ thing, that is the work we do as Children of the Father. Want to please the Lord? There you go…
One last thing. That ‘Joy’ stuff, that’s our Father saying ‘Good Job, My Child.’ Amen.
Bulletin Board:
From Max Lucado – During the next 24 hours, make it your aim to celebrate everything good that happens to someone else.
From Stan – Are you blessed? Is it a secret? Don’t forget, you are blessed so that you can be a blessing. So, be… Let’s hear from you. We want to celebrate it!
This is really funny — Did I tell you the one about the pastor, the priest and the rabbit that walked into a bar? I did? Oh, okay, never mind, but it was really funny.
Closing Prayer:
(Having quoted Thomas Merton, might as well close with him, again.)
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” Amen.
