The Way of Love
This past week, I was traveling downtown for an event. I put the address in my GPS and set out. I head to this destination regularly, but I'm still unfamiliar with the area and the changing traffic patterns.
As I was driving, my GPS was calling out directions that were different than usual. I've mostly learned to follow these directions, as they are based on satellite data that can see far more about what is happening within the city than I can from my point of view.
Even though I know how reliable the GPS is, there are still moments where I can feel the anxiety rise in my body as I wonder is this really the best path? Maybe I should go the way that is familiar.
While on the main interchange, I noticed all the roads branching off in different directions, each leading to different places. Drivers weaved their way through traffic to find their proper exit.
In that moment I began to think about my journey with God.
Usually, in my life, I can only see the moment right in front of me. Yet, I often long to have the bird's-eye view, the entire cityscape laid out before me. I want to be able to see what happens when I take a particular path. Where will it lead? Will I get lost? Will I be disappointed in the final destination of that road? Will it be magical? Will it be full of delight?
I think I want to see the whole city laid out before me, with clear road signs and exit routes ready to go, but while driving, I was thinking about God's graciousness in actually limiting what I can see.
There was a time when I thought my life only had one path and that if I missed a turn on the path, everything would be messed up, and I'd miss out on what God had for me. As I got older, I began to realize my life is full of possible paths and an invitation to partner with God to notice which path makes the most sense in the season of life I'm in.
Sometimes, there are scenic paths. Sometimes, the path bypasses the busy roads and is a wide open space with lots of room to move around. Sometimes, the path is crowded and noisy. Sometimes, the path is full of joy and laughter. Sometimes, the path is marked with heartache.
All of these various paths make up the highway of our life.
I've been reading "To Love as God Loves" by Roberta C. Bondi. At the start of Chapter 2, she mentions Matthew 5:48 - "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." She writes, "Strangely enough from our modern perspective, this commandment did not seem either repulsive or impossible to them. To us, it suggests legalism, or it fills us with despair or bafflement. For them, however, the commandment to be perfect was simply another way of phrasing the Great Commandment: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself' (Luke 10:27). What Jesus asked of those who took up his life was perfect love."
If you begin reading in Matthew 5 at verse 21, each of these verses leading up to verse 48 is Jesus saying this is what you've known, but I'm inviting you to an even deeper love than that; I'm inviting you to love perfectly like your Father in heaven.
I wonder if all the paths along our journey are just opportunities for us to grow in love. Goodness, what a beautiful idea. Every part of our story helping us to love more perfectly. Every space slowing us down enough to look to God and notice how to care for the people on the path around us.
That kind of love could change the world.
~ Melissa