Out of the Will? Never.

Think of a person you love more than words can capture.


This may be a long-time friend, a niece, a child, a spouse...
someone who you will love, regardless of their successes or failures.
Now hold that person in your mind as you read these passages:


I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them. Jeremiah 32:40


Having been justified by the grace of Jesus Christ, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:7


It seems it is hard for us to claim for ourselves the same love we have for others...
hard to imagine that there are those who will love us regardless of our successes or failures...
even though none of us would deny that we can OFFER unconditional love, we often really struggle to fully ACCEPT it from others.


What strikes me in the passages today is the role that God takes in our lives...


It is GOD who makes a covenant with ME...
and I notice this covenant is not nullified by my errors.


It is GOD who draws near to ME...
and I notice this promise is not erased when I draw away.


It is GOD who justifies ME...
and I notice this has nothing to do with my ability to live perfectly.


It is GOD who makes ME an heir...
and I notice it isn't my actions that earn me a place in the will.


How silly it would be for a group of children to gather at school and decide together that even though their parents tell them they are loved, they must not be, because there are household rules they sometimes break.


And yet, I feel like this is what we have done to Christianity in the popular imagination...
we have sprinkled our Protestant Work Ethic on top of the Words of Scripture, and come out with a version of Christianity that says your rule-following earns you a way into heaven.


How do I know this?
Because I have been at many bedsides in final moments, as people express to me regret, and fear, that the mistakes of their lives have ultimately made them unworthy and unlovable.


I also know this because I have felt it...in dark times...in broken moments...


But I go back to the person we were thinking of at the beginning of this devotion...if even I, as a frail human, am able to summon a love that's not dependent on someone's success or failure, how much more does God feel this toward me?


So I begin today resting in the knowledge that none of my accomplishments or failures in the next 24 hours will affect my place in the will; none will change my status as an heir of Love unfailing.


There is a beautiful freedom in this...freedom to live, and love, to the best of my ability to today...
and then after what will surely be an imperfect day, I will fall back into the arms of Love tonight.


Thank you, God, for that beautiful gift.


PRAYER:
Lamb of God, as you conquered sin and death, empower us to reject the temptations and culture of materialism that are rampant in our world. Thank you for your covenant of grace and the ultimate inheritance that awaits us. Amen.*

*Prayer taken from the Moravian Daily Texts.