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Day Nine: Wednesday

“IF YOU SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME”

Read John 14:15-17.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” (vv. 15-16).

Today I’m caught up in the memory of my cousin Linda. She died this past week, just forty-six years of age. But she demonstrated such wondrous grace and faith as she realized that the life she knew, in this time and space, was coming to a close.

Linda was an arrestingly lovely lady, both beautiful and spiritually astute. She owned a vibrant sense of life and the kind of “live-it-out-loud” application of faith that engages the deepest meaning of Lent’s redemptive focus. Linda lived the powerful truth that, because of Jesus’ passion and resurrection, the reality of eternity is held in every moment: life, death, and, sometimes most poignantly, the transition between the two.

I sensed all of this acutely during a wonderful conversation I had with Linda and her husband, Dave, via Skype the first week of December. We talked for close to an hour. Then, at the end of the conversation, we prayed together. I wish we all could have taken one another’s hands. But it was interesting how prayer linked us inexplicably, and I could barely speak through the tears. It was as if a different kind of conduit had opened up the moment we began to pray.

So there is communication, and then there is communication. The content of the entire conversation was necessarily deep, but something else happened when faith entered the equation. “Perfect love,” John said, “drives out fear” (1 John 4:18, NIV). And, as Jesus promised, “But take heart! I have overcome [conquered] the world” (John 16:33, NIV).

I wrote the following entry in my blog the day after that conversation:

I’ve said before that my cousin Linda is a cool lady, full of grace and strength. Well, she’d say it isn’t her, that the grace is all God—and even more the strength part. But that is what happens when you don’t really know anymore where you come to an end and where God begins.

I’m thankful that, as who Linda is becomes more and more defined by eternity than it is by time, my cousin’s faith is something that we all can embrace, and that God’s powerful presence is all about the fullness of life. I pray that we all might know the assurance of such faith and love.

JESUS-FOLLOWER

Question: What are some of the biggest stumbling blocks that keep nonbelievers from darkening the doors of their local Christian church?

Answer: A lack of authenticity, church politics, and the hard-to-hide truth that the real-deal, Jesus kind of love is seldom central to community life.

I guess that I’m saying my cousin Linda was a bona fide Jesus follower. Jesus was crystal clear regarding what he wanted to see when it came to that kind of label. And it’s safe to say that the Lord wasn’t looking for correct doctrine or outward appearances or a social political slant.

“If you love me,” Jesus said, “you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Such a simple admonition. Jesus shows us the way, plain and simple. “All right then. I’ll use small words and speak slowly. Listen up: if you love me—if you truly say that you love me, then follow my directions; demonstrate my love; keep my commandments.”

“Oh, but Lord,” we all want to say, “you mentioned something about loving the Lord God with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, all our soul, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Isn’t that too broad a concept? I mean, what is love anyway?”

Jesus: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Us: “OK, Lord, we don’t have to go there. But my mind? Get serious! Our minds are so complex that psychologists are still trying to figure out the basics.”

Jesus: “Be transformed by the renewing of your minds” (Rom. 12:2).

Us: “That’s not fair, Lord. Paul said that much later. Oh, never mind. Listen, Lord, our lives are very complicated. How can we possibly keep all of your commandments? I mean, isn’t that just a tad unreasonable? Can’t we be selective? You really are a little too radical for us sometimes.”

Jesus: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (John 15:10).

When we follow Jesus, the Christ-life becomes our life and, like my cousin Linda, the application by definition is systemic and never merely topical.

So where is the place that you end and God begins? It turns out that there is no such place for those who follow closely. Contemplate the implications of that truth in your life.

Prayer: Challenge us gently, Lord. Show us the way. And grant us courage. Amen.