During our series “Made to Glow”, we have been working through the Three Simple Rules of the Methodist Societies: Do no harm. Do Good. Stay in love with God.
This week, as we consider how we might “stay in love with God,” the word stay is significant. The instruction could have been simply, “love God.” But adding the “stay” reminds us that there is a significant difference between a crush or a fleeting interest, and a love that endures and grows dearer and stronger over the course of time.
Love that endures and grows over time does so because a choice has been made. It is the choice to stay in loving relationship with another even when it is not easy, and even when it is difficult. There will always be times in any relationship when it is easier to give up and leave, or just slowly drift away. Staying is the active commitment of love. Love stays and sticks with us in the best and fun times and in the hard times when everything seems to be falling apart. Love holds us accountable to our greatest potential and offers us grace in the places we fail. It is that consistency, security, and accountability that allows us to continue to grow into our truest and best selves throughout our lives.
Love that stays is first a description of how God loves us. God’s love for us is unconditional. It does not and will not end. There is nothing we can do to cause God not to love us. God sticks with us and stays with us even in our most terrible and God forsaken moments. We see this in Jesus when from the cross he proclaims, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And God rejoices with us and calls our name even as we experience moments of resurrection and new possibilities.
God is the one who sets the standard for love. Paul describes this kind of love beautifully in I Corinthians 13. Not only is this kind of love patient and kind, keeping no record of wrongs, this kind of love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” This kind of love never ends.
This is the kind of love we are invited into in this instruction, “stay.” When we respond to God with the kind of love God has for us, we stay close to God by making intentional choices to include God in our daily lives and routines. We pay attention to God in our work, leisure time, and service. We speak and listen to God through prayer. We appreciate and honor God with our worship. We are curious about God and learn from God and about God through study of scripture and openness to the Holy Spirit. We notice God’s presence in others and the world and model God’s unconditional love and grace as we interact with them.
As we do these things, staying close and committed to God, we grow in our love of God and we become more like God, and God’s light shines even more brightly through us.
May it be so!
Suzanne