A Love Affair with God

Happy Valentines Day! My children were busy all week writing valentines to their classmates. What about you all, are you planning on celebrating someone you love today? What are you planning to do with them or for them?

Valentines Day gives us an opportunity to show our love and appreciation for someone we care about here in this earthly kingdom. Today is also the first Sunday in Lent. Lent gives us an opportunity to fix our gaze on the Lover of our Soul and show our love and appreciation for God. Just like in any relationship, its easy to fall into autopilot. I know for Dan and I, we have to be really intentional, about making time for one another or months could go by without a meaningful conversation or experience that doesn’t revolve around kids schedules, work, paying bills, etc. We become like two trains on parallel tracks, taking each other for granted and sometimes even forgetting what we appreciate about one another. Those of you who have been married for awhile know what I’m talking about…we have all been guilty of taking one another for granted.

That is also true for our relationship with God. It’s easy to fall into autopilot, going through the motions: go to church, say some rote prayers, do my best to be kind to others. There’s no passion, there’s no creativity, there’s no fire. Sure we give lip service to loving God but do we really appreciate who he is and what he does for us?

Lent is the time to turn off autopilot. God calls us into a deeper relationship with him and that starts with turning down the busyness in our lives so we can fall back in love with God, the lover of our souls. Think back, for some of us we’re going to have to think way back, to those first couple of months of falling in love with your spouse. I know when Dan and I met, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. My heart would skip a beat when he would call. He would leave me little notes in my dormroom and backpack and I treasured them like they were precious jewels. When we were apart, I couldn’t wait to see him again. Everything we did together was a new adventure. Eventually the realities of life, kids, jobs, disappointment, loss, made those adventures fewer and far between. Yet, every relationship has to figure out how to make time for those adventures, for that time of mutual appreciation and admiration. We have to figure out how to make time for an adventure with God.

When a couple is struggling to connect, marriage therapists will encourage the couple to think about what they appreciate about one another and how they show one another that appreciation. This Lent let’s do the same with our relationship with God. What are some things you appreciate about God? Try to think of at least 5 things you appreciate about God and write them down! Keep this note somewhere you look often through Lent, like your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, or somewhere in your car.

I am thankful for God’s patience with our stubbornness and selfishness and his overwhelming generous provision. We heard in our readings today (Exodus 16:2-21 and John 6:1-15) two instances where God did amazing things for his people. In Exodus, the people are out wandering in the wilderness, waiting to be led to the promised land, and they are complaining. “There’s nothing to eat! We’re hungry! We’re bored.” Not their finest moment. God could have led them through a pasture of wheat or something simple to meet their basic need and stop their complaining, but God loves his people, even his complaining people, so he rained down bread from heaven. Every morning the Israelites would wake up and find God’s amazing provision glistening like dew on the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, he sent quail every evening… so many quail that they “covered the camp.” God loves us so much, complaining, stubborn and all, that he doesn’t want to just provide the basics for us, he wants to lavish us with his love and generosity.

We have another example of God lavishing his people with love in our gospel. Thousands of people have gathered to hear Jesus speak. Many of them have been following him for days. Were the people grumbling about being hungry? We don’t know, the text doesn’t say, but either way Jesus sees that they need food and asks the disciples how they can feed everybody. The disciples are dumbfounded – there is no human way to feed all these people, 5000 men plus women and children. Put yourself in the disciples’ shoes, imagine for a moment that you are at district stadium for a big football game. You’ve gotten there early to get a seat but the game has been delayed hours and there are no concessions open. Everyone is getting impatient and grumpy. And Jesus asks you to feed all 8700 fans. We didn’t hear it in our reading today, but in the other three gospels, the disciples suggest that Jesus send everyone home. Makes sense, the most logical and direct way to solve the problem. But the disciples forget that God loves to lavish his love on his children so instead, Jesus takes 5 loaves and 2 fish, blesses them and breaks them and hands out the pieces so that ALL WERE SATISFIED. And there were twelve baskets leftover. God loves to lavish his people, us, his children with everything we need to be satisfied, plus some.

Can you think of a time someone lavished you with love and generosity? I can. And I hate to admit it but I acted a lot like the Israelites in our first reading, grumbling and complaining. In the weeks leading up to my 22nd birthday, life was busy with school and work, I was a resident assistant in a dorm, I hadn’t been feeling well, and my usually attentive boyfriend was MIA. He was hard to get a hold of, late to pick me up and just generally distracted. I was pretty irritated and grumbled and complained. The day of my birthday, he took me out for dinner and arranged for my family to join us. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. He made sure I had a special day and even included my family. But that was just the beginning. You see the reason he had been hard to get a hold of, late to pick me up and generally distracted, was that he was coordinating with the 67 residents on my floor to deliver a message to me after dinner. As we approached my dorm room from the parking lot, he called one of the residents and suddenly one room at a time the lights on my floor came on and there was a letter in each window that spelled Will You Marry Me? Dan could’ve done a simple, straightforward proposal at dinner but no, he wanted to lavish me with love and involve everyone I cared about. By the time we got up to the 10th floor, my family, my friends and all of my residents were gathered in our floor den for a celebration.

That sweet, passionate, over-the-top gesture of Dan’s love for me is just a shadow of what God has in store for each of you. God is waiting even today to shower you with his love. Maybe he already is but you just don’t see it or notice it. There’s this strange thing in human relationships… when you feel disconnected, irritated or angry, you can only see the stuff your partner is not doing. Look at the Israelites in the first reading, they were frustrated, so they quickly forgot everything God had already done for them, like lead them out of slavery. All they could see was that they were hungry and they couldn’t see God doing anything about it.

Maybe that is how some of you are feeling today? Things are not perfect in your life and you can’t see God doing anything about it! I get it… I’ve been there too. But the flip side of this human relationships thing is that when we choose to stop and be grateful… to focus on things the we appreciate about loved one, suddenly we notice even more things we appreciate about them, that in fact they never stopped caring for us, we just didn’t see it. That is our focus this first week in Lent, to appreciate God. Before the end of the day today, I want you to write down 5 things that you appreciate about God. I’m serious… I know it sounds corny. For this next week, I want you to put that list someplace you look at often, your bathroom mirror, the refrigerator, in your car. When you start to feel frustrated, angry or disconnected, I want you to think about the list of things you appreciate about God.

For some of you that is as far as you’ll get this week. And that’s fantastic!!! But for those of you who are feeling pretty connected to God already and want to jump into a more passionate adventure, I want you to consider the ways you show your love and appreciation for God. Take your time – no boring stuff… For the remainder of Lent, we are going to be exploring this idea of Giving to God, not because we have to or because we’re forced to, but because we love God, we appreciate everything he does for us, we recognize that he is the source of love and life and we want to give back. Remember, God does not want a dry, boring, autopilot kind of relationship with you… He doesn’t want you just going through the motions of life. He wants to take you on an adventure, a love affair even… to lavish you with sweet, passionate, over-the-top gestures of his love. But, as the saying goes, it takes two to tango. Have any of you ever been in a one-sided relationship where you were the only one lavishing love and taking risks? No fun!!! That kind of relationship does not lead to abundant life and joy.

God is ready and willing and already lavishing you with over-the-top crazy love, are you ready to take some risks and lavish God with love? How do you do it? STEWARDSHIP… taking the gifts that God has already given you – life, food, water, shelter, family, community, gifts and talents, health, home, finances, and using them in ways that honor and glorify God. Again, not because we have to (not much passionate love in that) but because we want to lavish God with love.

When we were at Regal Estates, a local assisted living home this week, we were talking about lavishing God with love and one woman shared that in the last couple of years she felt like God was calling her to visit folks in the hospital. She was nervous and didn’t really want to, because you never know what you might walk in on, death, bodily functions not working as they should, frustration and anger that bodily functions are not working as they should, but slowly she got more confident offering her presence to friends that were hospitalized. What surprised her most, is that as she offered her time and her presence in the service of love, she received 10 fold back in love and joy and companionship.

That is how stewardship works in God’s world. He loves you first, passionately, you love him back, cautiously, even just a little, and your cup overflows with blessings. How will you love God back this Lenten season? What risks will you take? Will you trust God with more of your time, talents and treasure? How can you give yourself away in the service of Love?

Did you know that we have time every Sunday during our worship service to consider those questions? It is called the offering! Some people think the offering is a simple business exchange to make sure the business entity that is our church pays its bills. Giving to the church is a part of Giving to God but the offering is so much more than that… It is our love letter to God. It includes our prayers for others, hopefully some time spent meditating and talking with God, and our sacrificial offering. Our giving back to God what he gave us first. You see its easy to pay lip-service to loving God, but the offering is an opportunity to actually give a part of ourselves away. To go above and beyond in showering God with our love. In the old testament, people would gather to worship God and they would give away something of value, they would bring their choicest animal and the first-fruits of their crops and burn it as an offering to God… as a way to say thank you for loving us. Thank you for everything you do for us. As we move through Lent, I invite you to show your appreciation for God by giving yourself away. Share how you are giving yourself away in a love letter to God placed in the offering. Maybe you will live on less and trust God with more of your money. Maybe you will offer a hidden talent or gift in the service of others. Maybe you will write a poem or song. Maybe you will set aside some time in prayer, meditation or service.

God really invites us into a passionate love affair. I know some of you think I must be crazy. You’ve never heard religion or spirituality described as a passionate love affair. Yet, in the bible, King David experienced this love affair and chronicled his adventures with God in the psalms. Close your eyes and ask someone to read you this poem King David wrote to God (Psalm 63).

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

God calls you into the same passionate, adventurous love affair that King David experienced. Like King David, meditate on the goodness of God and write your own letters of appreciation and sacrifice.