Lent Reflection, Day 14, March 16

So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:16

Additional Reading: Psalm 23

A lesson from my day-to-day life with my wife … On any given day I’m content to simply know that I love her without necessarily showing her and reminding her that I love her. I can be content with this and not think it’s a big deal to her because simply knowing it is all right with me.

The God I read about in the Bible isn’t like that. Throughout the Bible you find constant reminders that God loves us. God doesn’t stop with just telling us he loves us, he shows his love through the way he interacts with the numerous people between the covers of the book. A key teaching in the Bible is this: for love to be made complete it must walk hand in hand with action. This isn’t easy for me because I am by nature, lazy. Even when I am able to make this leap, I’ve found that I’m actually so messed up that I turn many of my actions into a kind of system of obligation. Yes, many times I do things because I’m supposed to, and not because I want to (sorry, honey). I’m sure she already knows this because often I can tell that she picks up on my insincerity.

I tend to gravitate toward a system of duty because once again by my original nature I’m lazy. It’s easier to perform tasks out of habit, or from a checklist than to sincerely be interested in another person. I guess it is safe to say that good actions don’t always equal love; sincere love must come first. This is an amazing thing about God, he loves us sincerely, and not out of obligation. This is part of His true nature.

Prayer: God, thank you that you don’t operate from a “checklist,” marking off our names as you go down the list. Thank you for you you are, God - love, sincere, spontaneous, thoughtful love. Amen.