Friday Blog

[God] Loves You, and There is Nothing You Can Do About It

In: Friday Blog
Hits: 0 88
Valentine's Chocolate Boxes

The past two weeks I have attempted to begin the Sabbath by pausing to contemplate some aspect of my week reviewing how God has spoken to me in some quiet way as I start the day He has set aside to fellowship with us. This week was a busy week and as a result I had another appointment that left me rushing to get home before sunset that left me falling over the edge into Sabbath instead of ushering it in quietly. I have contemplated often how Lisa's and my dog Pogo illustrates my rushed relationship with God. I may explore that more in depth in another post at another time, but today is Valentines day so I want to explore that concept a little today.

The English language often is very poor at expressing ideas effectively. When we explore the meaning of words we find that many of them have multiple meanings with wide ranging application. Take the word "love" as an example - at Valentines day we express our "love" for another by giving them a box of chocolates because every one "loves" chocolate (yes, I understand that not EVERYBODY loves chocolate, but you know what I mean!) We use the same word to describe our affinity for a sweet treat that we do for our affection for our crush and for our devotion to our soul mate. The first reference simply attests to our enjoyment of a delicacy while the last two reference different levels of the same emotion - it's the same word used to convey three very different meanings.
 
Over the years there have been several movies that I have watched that have made significant spiritual statements. Some of them like The Shack and Courageous are overtly religious while others like A Christmas Wish and A Walk in the Clouds make a more subtle statement with their message lurking just beneath the surface for anyone willing to dig a little to find. A few weeks ago Lisa and I watched the movie Soul on Fire (2025). This movie falls in the middle, clearly having a religious intent but the deeper message is still hiding under the surface. The story is about a young John O'Leary and his fight for survival after he burns his parents house down because he was playing with matches and gasoline in the garage. As a result of this accident he received burns over 100% of his body with 3rd degree burns over 85%, and was given less than a 1% chance of survival. As he is being treated in the emergency room his dad arrives at the hospital and states to John "I love you, and there is nothing you can do about that" just before they rush him into surgery. That phrase would be repeated at least one more time in the movie "I love you, and there is nothing you can do about that."
 
For many of us we have heard that phrase stated about God, "He loves us, and there is nothing we can do about that." Intellectually we know that God loves but we have a hard time believe that God loves US and there is nothing WE can do about that. Years ago I had a conversation with my mom about this very concept - the Sabbath School lesson had been focusing on God's forgiveness of our sin but someone was telling her that forgiveness was conditional, if she continued to be good God would continue to forgive her, but if she EVER did anything wrong all that forgiveness would be removed. I believe this perspective comes because we have a human perspective on love (once again I love chocolate and I love my wife!) and a misunderstanding of who God is. We believe that love is an emotion and God expresses love out of an emotional attachment. We read all the biblical passages about how God loves us but miss the most important one - 1 John 4:8 tells us that love is not something that God FEELS, but it is who He IS! God IS Love. Love does not define who God is, God defines what love is (we could spend an enormous amount of time looking at all the scripture that describes God's love but again that is for another time.) God will love you no matter what, there is NOTHING you can do about it. 2 Timothy 2:13 tells us that God cannot deny Himself - the Turk application of this passage says that "even if we don't love God He still loves us because He cannot deny Himself."
 
As with John O'Leary (spoiler alert) we often spend our entire lives believing that if God only knew what we had done He would stop loving us. I've got news for you, He already knows and He loves you anyway - and there is NOTHING you can do about that! Our challenge is not to attempt to earn God's love, but rather to accept the love that He so graciously lavishes upon us.

 

Fresh Articles

  • Friday Blog
    At Your Age You Shouldn't Do That

    "For someone your age you really should stop doing ..." Not the words you want to hear from anyone but those were precisely the words the Emergency Room doctor used to begin the conversation with me last Sunday evening. To set the full context for the conversation I had been working on replacing some rotted out fascia boards on my house that included the "bird box" on the gable end. Since this house is built on a pier and beam foundation with a 3 foot crawl space the roof line is about 10 feet off the ground. I had set up an adjustable step ladder and was standing on the second from the top wrung piecing the bird box together. The ground was a little bit uneven and the piece I was replacing was about 5 feet long so it required stretching a little bit to reach the ends if I didn't want to reposition the ladder. As I was stretching to the uphill side the ladder decided it no longer wanted to stand upright and deposited me on my back on the ground below. In my mind my ego was far more damaged than my body but my wife and daughter insisted I get medically checked out.

  • Friday Blog
    Who Am I?

    Last week on Thursday and Friday two candidates for President of Southwestern Adventist University were on campus and met with faculty and staff. Both candidates were asked to describe their plan for engaging faculty and staff with the vision and mission of the university. One of them, Nelu Nedelea, presented a very interesting concept - "I like to ask three questions, Who am I?, What is the context?, and What is my role." He went on to explain that generally the core of who we are doesn't change, we may grow and expand our sphere but our core beliefs and values do not change. The context and our role influence how we apply who we are to any given situation, but in the end who we are ultimately determines how we act.

  • Friday Blog
    Irreplaceable?

    This morning I had several people stop by the Innovation Studio to inquire about completing various projects. Most had become aware that with the school year wrapping up I would be working on tying up loose ends in preparation for our move to Tennessee. A couple of them commented to me "what is the University going to do when you are not here to run this place and do these projects?" Since I have been very intimately involved in the development and implementation of the Innovation Studio over the past three years that question, in one form or another, has been lingering in the back of my mind. I have a passion for this place and the possibility of it closing weighed heavily on my mind when I made the decision to move back to the Collegedale, Tennessee area a few weeks ago.

  • Friday Blog
    What is Right with the World?

    A few months ago I was watching an episode of the Canadian TV series Highway Thru Hell where Jamie Davis, owner of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue, comments about a tow truck that is sitting in a parking lot lit up like a Christmas tree. His observation is how unnecessary it is to have all the lights flashing and that it actually increases danger rather than reducing it. His contention is that the flashing lights draw your attention away from the road toward the source of the lights increasing the probability of an accident because you miss what is right in front of you. I have heard for years that broken down cars parked on the side of the road with their hazard lights flashing at night will draw you to them causing you to wander off the road and onto the shoulder.

  • Friday Blog
    Smoke or Fire
    Sitting in front of my fireplace watching the logs smolder I began contemplating why the fire burns well sometimes but at others it just sits there and smolders. I know there have been times that I have brought in "green" wood that is still so wet it doesn't want to burn but there are also times when I use seasoned wood that just sits there smoldering!
    While growing up my family spent many weekends camping. One of the things I remember my dad doing on some of these camping trips was filling a paper cup with water and placing it in the middle of the fire. We all know that paper burns readily, much easier than wood, but the paper cup filled with water does not! As an adult sitting around a campfire with friends I demonstrated this to their teenage son. We even went so far as to boil an egg in the cup in the middle of the fire.
     
  • Friday Blog
    Complicating the Simple

    A few months ago the key fob that I carry to unlock the doors to our Buick Enclave started acting up. The buttons would stick down causing the lift gate to open or the alarm to go off spontaneously. After several attempts to clean the fob it became evident that I was going to need to replace it. After researching my options I discovered the key fobs for my model and year were NOT end user programmable. While I could buy the fob on Amazon I would need to take it to a locksmith (or worse, a dealer) to have it programmed. I consider myself a resourceful individual so I figured since the control board inside was fine it was just the button covers that were sticking, and it is the same shape and size as the original, I could purchase a new fob and just swap out the board. Little did I know that inside the battery contact setup was different - the new fob had a clip on the board to hold the battery but in the old fob the battery was secured in the case - making it difficult to swap out the boards. I did it anyway and tried to tape the battery in place with very limited success - the fob would open the doors one or two times before the battery would slip, losing contact so the fob stopped working. For the past two months I have been opening the doors with the key which triggers the alarm until the car is started. This has been very frustrating and I was coming to the conclusion I would have to give in and pay a locksmith to reprogram the fob.

Joomla! Templates by RSJoomla!