Note: On Saturdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. (Deuteronomy 26:17, NRSVCE)
“You have obtained the Lord’s agreement.” It sounds so simple, so transactional. You do what God wants, and you get the promise of eternal life.
But call it the refiner’s fire or continual conversion or whatever you like. This agreement with the Lord requires us to dig deeper and deeper into what we say and do and think. It requires us to shed very human emotions. It requires us to be meek, to be peacemakers, and all the other challenging things Jesus called out in the Beatitudes.
Hardest of all, it requires us to love.
That love doesn’t just extend to the politician you find odious or the businessperson you find craven or the celebrity you find untalented.
That love extends to the girl (you remember her name, don’t pretend you don’t) who was mean to you in seventh grade, the person who laughed or fell asleep during your very serious presentation last week, and the person without a mask who coughed as you passed each other yesterday at the grocery store.
That love extends to the person who last summer gave you father the virus that killed him, the construction worker who didn’t bother to mark the dip in the pavement that caused you to fall and almost lose your front teeth, and the drunk driver who killed your grandchild.
That love is not rational. That love is not easy. But the offering of that love is eclipsed only by the love God gives to each of us each day.
That love, like that agreement with God, is so profoundly holy we cannot understand it fully. We can only open ourselves to it… and say yes to the giving and receiving.
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