John of the Cross: Receive more love

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

“The payment and the price of love is to receive more love.”

John of the Cross (1542-1591) in Spiritual Canticle, 9.7.

Yesterday in my Pinehurst Bible Study group we looked at 1 John 4. Repeatedly the text reminded us that God is love and our responsibility is to love our brothers and sisters.

The command to love God and love others is what Jesus desires of us. But it’s hard to do in the wake of very divisive election season. There’s so much angst and anger out there.

So how do we serve as conduits of love in challenging times. John gives us the motivation, namely, that God loved us first. He modeled the way for us.

And John of the Cross suggests how we fill our proverbial tank to love others generously. We position ourselves like a cup under a spigot. We receive more love.

Let’s resolve to do this today and every day. Rather than allow challenging people and situations to foster hate and frustration in us, let’s receive and give love generously.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10

“Very often we do not know what is good for us; and what confuses matters more is that we think we do. We have our own plans for our happiness, and too often we look upon God as someone who will help us to carry them out. The true state of affairs is invariably the reverse of this. God has his own perfect plans for our happiness, and is waiting for us to help Him carry them out. And let it be clear that we can in no way improve on God’s plans.”

Eugene Boylan in This Tremendous Lover (Gastonia: TAN Books).

Our tendency in living is for us to want our kingdom to come and our will to be done on earth, right now, today. Notice how that’s the opposite of what God desires for us.

Boylan uses the right word here: reverse.

When we shift in reverse, and instead, pursue God’s kingdom and trust His plans for us and let him sort our happiness, everything changes.

We go from disappointed containers to delighted conduits of blessing.

Please, you owe it to yourself to put it in reverse today. And do it remembering the last and best line of Boylan: “we can in no way improve on God’s plans.”

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” Matthew 25:40

“Works of mercy, as well as the relief they give to those in need, serve to improve our own souls and those of the people who accompany us in those activities. We have all experienced that contact with the sick, with the poor, with children andwith adults who go hungry, always means for us a meeting with Christ in His weaker or unprotected members, and for that very reason such contact can mean a spiritual enrichment.”

Álvaro del Portillo (1914-1994) in his letter dated 31 May 1987.

Works of mercy appear as acts for those who either don’t deserve it or cannot repay it. In the words of Jesus, in today’s Scripture, whatever we do for such people, He considers them done for Him.

As we start another week, let’s focus our giving on those who either don’t deserve it or cannot repay it. This runs contrary to patterns in my own American culture which tell me to give to the things I care about.

That’s what our culture defines as generosity. Of such behavior, Jesus said these words.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.” Luke 6:32-33

So he elaborates and gives us this instruction, which is echoed in today’s post.

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Luke 6:35

This kind of merciful generosity can anticipate reward. We can count on spiritual enrichment when our giving reflects the kind of giving that moves beyond the giving of sinners and reflects the giving of our God Most High.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9

“We should ask ourselves in our prayer today whether we know how to love everybody who crosses our path in this life, whether we have a real concern for their misfortunes, a concern that leads us to act in an effective way; thus, when we come out to our daily examination of conscience we will find in the course of it that we have many acts of charity and of mercy we can offer to God…

And just as God’s love is not simply an emotion or feeling, but something that leads our Lord to perform deeds that show it, so our love for our neighbor has to be a love that shows itself in deeds… The opposite to this, namely the seeking of material goods as the most important thing for oneself and for others, is proper only to pagans or to those Christians who have allowed their faith to grow lukewarm, so that, in fact, it has very little influence on their daily lives.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 544-545.

Today’s Scripture pivots from walking in the steps of Jesus in the Gospels to a verse from Revelation that reveals the impact of our missional living, giving, serving, and loving. People from “every nation, tribe, people and language” will come to know the Jesus we serve and spend eternity with Him.

Texts like this remind us of the big picture. When we engage in God’s global work supporting ministries like GTP or others, we help people come to know Christ, to have their robes washed in the blood of the lamb. And the ironic part is that we never even meet these people from all over the world.

In this post, Fernandez reminds us that it was the love of God in Jesus that led him to “deeds that show God’s love” toward neighbors. I researched that when Jesus met this woman from Nain, it came at the moment of completing 30 miles of travel from Capernaum. This inspired me to look for opportunities when I am act my weakest or after long trips.

Speaking of 30. GTP had 446 givers in 71 countries last year but only 30 monthly givers. A major foundation, that looks at our metrics and impact and that is considering a second major gift that would add 2-3 staff wants to see more monthly givers. We are praying for 100. Will you step up and become a monthly giver to GTP? Click here to give monthly.

And I have a special treat today to inspire you. My daughter, Sophie, works for Wycliffe Bible Translators. She serves on a team that developed 7-day devotional called “Dare to Live Generously” for free download here. Check it out. Read it with family or friends. I just got it yesterday, started it, and was touched to see her name in day one. You have to read to find out what she said.

What I can tell you is that when we taught her to do “deeds that show God’s love” she did not figure it out until she did them the impact they would have on her life and the trajectory on which it would send her to. Perhaps go back and read today’s post again to conclude and ask God what acts of charity and mercy He may have in store for you.

My advice is to serve and support a portfolio of things God cares about. For service, maybe start with groups like the poor, the sick, or the next generation needing some coaching to serve God in church or ministry work. And rather than grow your material goods like the pagans (as Fernandez put it), grow your monthly giving to your local church, GTP, Wycliffe Bible Translators, and others.

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and His disciples and a large crowd went along with Him. As He approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, His heart went out to her and He said, “Don’t cry.”

Then He went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help His people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. Luke 11:11-17

“Jesus crosses paths again with a crowd of people. He could have passed by or waited until they called Him. But He didn’t. He took the initiative, because He was moved by a widow’s sorrow. She had just lost all she had, her son. The evangelist [Luke] explains that Jesus was moved. Perhaps even showed signs of it… Jesus Christ was not, and is not, insensitive to suffering…

Christ knows He is surrounded by a crowd which will be awed by the miracle and will tell the story all over the countryside. But He does not act artificially, merely to make an effect. Quite simply, He is touched by that woman’s suffering and cannot keep from consoling her. So He goes up to her and says, ‘Do not weep’. It is like saying, ‘I don’t want to see you crying: I have come on earth to bring joy and peace.’ And then comes the miracle, the sign of the power of Christ who is God. But first came His compassion, an evident sign of the tenderness of the heart of Christ…

We should ask our Lord to give us a good heart, capable of having compassion for other people’s pain. Only with such a heart can we realize that the true balm for the suffering and anguish in the world is love, charity. All other consolations hardly even have a temporary effect and leave behind them bitterness and despair.”

Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975) in Christ is Passing By (Strongsville: Scepter, 1974) 166.

As we continue following Christ to see His generosity and follow His example, we come to the miracle of the healing of the widow’s son in Nain.

If you recall, the context has Jesus walking along with with his newly-picked ordinary people as disciples and with them and in front of a crowd, we see this display of compassion coupled with the miracle of healing.

We might be tempted to say, but how can I bring the same healing? How can I exchange brokenness for blessing or turn grief into generosity? The answer is not to try to solve problems with money but lead with love.

Remember, the apostle Paul tells us this. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[a] but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:3

So where does our money and our resources come into play? After the compassion. Notice Jesus first was moved, then he acted. When we lead with love and then put to work what we have, God can do the same miracles through us.

If you don’t believe me, then I challenge you to do this. Move toward the brokenness in your context with love. Then once you meet the grief and pain, face to face with love, use what you have to minister and see what happens.

Remember, in these last two months of the year we do not want to overlook the needs of those around us but attune to them, bring love to them, and whatever resources we can muster, and trust God to work.

Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:4

“To live charity in a way that becomes ever more refined and heroic, it will be necessary for us to apply this approach right down to the smallest and least important details of daily life… At times it will mean taking real interest in what people are saying; at other times it will be putting aside our own personal concerns so as to give our attention to the people we live with. It will mean not getting annoyed about what are really trivia, not being touchy, making people feel welcome. We will have to help others in a way they may not notice but which lightens their burden, to pray to God for them, for example, when they are in need, to avoid having a critical spirit towards them and always to be grateful to them… All of these things are within the reach and scope of each one of us… If we give attention to little things, we will live each day to the full, and will know how to fill each moment with the sense of preparation for eternity.

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 529.

My wife will appreciate this one, and my children and extended family, too.

It’s easy to give insufficient attention to those around us. It’s called taking them for granted. That phrase actually means “to fail to properly appreciate someone or something often as a result of overfamiliarity.”

Fernandez rightly challenges us to to include “attention” as part of our giving to those around us.

For those of us with room to grow in this area, let’s aim for “refined and heroic” living. Let’s lean into what it means to “give attention” to those around us in the last two months of this year.

Let’s do this so our family really feels like we are fully present with them.

And as today is All Saints Day, the day we remember those who have gone to be with the Lord, let’s live this way (as Fernandez alerts us) to prepare for the fellowship we will enjoy together for eternity.

When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Luke 10:8

“Our spirit of mortification normally consists in specific little sacrifices throughout the day: keeping up a persevering struggle in our particular examination of conscience, sobriety at meals, punctuality, being pleasant to people, getting up on time, not leaving our work for later even though we find it difficult and trying, having order in our work, and taking care of the tools or implements and materials we use, being grateful for whatever food is put in front of us, not allowing ourselves whims and fancies.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 528-529.

When I train workers around the world, at least once when we are together for a meal and I am enjoying the food they chose for us to eat, I cite this verse. It’s intentional mortification that brings people together.

I may or may not be in the mood for the food they put in front of me, and if they ask me, I pass on raw onions, but it’s important to eat what people put in front of you. Why?

Food brings people together. Eating the favorite food in someone’s home or local eatery is like sharing part of their life and culture. Part of our mortification is going with the flow and not being picky about food.

Fernandez describes this as “specific little sacrifices” which over time we realize are not small. It’s why Jesus urged people to dig in to whatever food was offered with gratitude. Bon appetit.

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Revelation 3:15-18

“One of the most obvious warning signs that we are starting on the path of lukewarmness is that we give little value to the details of the life of piety, to details in our work, and to little specific acts of virtue: if we ignore these symptoms we end up paying little attention to big things as well… Love for God on the other hand is shown by our inventiveness, by our unremitting zeal, and our effort to find in everything an occasion for showing our love of God and for giving service to others.”

Francis Fernandez in In Conversation with God: Meditations for Each Day of the Year, volume 3 (London: Scepter, 1990) 527-528.

One of the biggest concern for stewards I serve around the world is lukewarmness. As they age, they move to passivity and personal comfort rather than inventiveness.

God sees when we give unremitting zeal to the little tasks in life. He not only sees, He smiles because our giving service to others shows His love to the world.

Notice in today’s Scripture, that Jesus wants the church in Laodicea to go from a place of wretchedness and poverty to abounding in goodness and true riches.

They likely quit valuing, as Fernandez puts it, the little specific acts of virtue and focused on accumulating wealth. Many fall into this trap. Don’t let it be you.

Aim at inventiveness. Focus not on what you can’t do because of what you don’t have and think how can use the possessions you have to show your love for God and others.

And value the life of piety, but not for piety’s sake. It’s not like piety get’s us brownie points with God. It a formational journey. We grow on the way.

And to grow in generosity, we need to give value to the life of piety and give service to others in a way that glorifies God. This appears as gold refined by fire.

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?” Zechariah 4:10

“What is small, is small: but the one who is faithful in small things is great.”

Augustine of Hippo in On Christian Doctrine 14, 35.

Someone asked me recently when I find time to write. The key is not to find big blocks of time but to maximize small windows of time each day toward the goal of getting a finished manuscript.

Zerubbabel had a job to do. The prophet proclaimed that He would rebuild the foundation of the temple. Sounds like an impossible task! Where would he start? Trusting God, of course, and doing the work one step at a time.

Think about it. Whether God calls you to write a book, rebuild a temple, or do anything. It’s really a call to take small steps. Your most generous contribution in the lives around you is to be faithful in small things.

Today’s my mom’s birthday. She’s great because her whole life has been a series of small tasks, and she’s nailed them faithfully. Happy Birthday Mom! Thanks for setting a great example for everyone who knows you.

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

“Great opportunities to serve God seldom arise, but little ones are frequent. Understand then that the one who is faithful over a few things will be placed over many. Do all things in the name of God and you will do all things well. Provided you know how to fulfill your duties properly, then ‘whether you eat or drink’, whether you sleep or take recreation or turn spit, you will profit greatly in God’s sight by doing all these things because God wishes you to do them.”

Francis de Sales in Introduction to the Devout Life III, 34.

After one of my staff members saw me preaching on at a large church in Seoul, he said this to me. “Gary, someday I want to preach at a large church like that. How do I get the opportunity?”

I said almost the same words as Francis wrote here. “Great opportunities to serve God seldom arise, but little ones are frequent. Understand then that the one who is faithful over a few things will be placed over many.”

This young staff member was the first believer in his village in Nepal. He has evangelized the entire village. Soon he may be the first person ever to receive a PhD in English in his country. So I added this.

Prakash, you will preach on larger stages. You will do even greater things than I have done. You need to focus on doing every task, big or small, with precision and excellence, and the God who sees will reward you.

This rings true for everyone reading today. Do little things well. God will give you greater opportunities over time. Related to giving, make many faithful small gifts. You will profit greatly and see your giving grow.