Recently, I had another all too familiar conversation with a man preparing for a retreat at Corhaven. He said, “Even though I’ve been a Christian for many years and heard a hundred sermons on this, I have a hard time accepting God’s love for me. If I had to climb 10 mountains to earn God’s love, I’d do it in a heartbeat. It’s a lot harder just to receive it.”
The brilliant Peter Kreeft has written almost 50 books, one of which he calls ‘the one I know is true’, titled The God Who Loves You. There he writes, “‘God loves you’–isn’t that the most well-worn of cliches? It’s just standard filler for the laziest, most obvious and repetitive homilies. Smile. Yawn. Everybody knows that by now, at least everybody who has ever been in a church. No. Exactly the opposite. It is not familiar. It is shattering. It changes everything. And most Christians do not realize it.”
I see this pretty regularly in conversations. I remember one with a man, very mature in his faith, who had stepped out and risked much for God, and followed God as best he could, as he’d done for years. But things didn’t go well, and weren’t going well, and it was getting very very hard. His honest question became “I just wonder if God even cares for me?” Another of those conversations was from a man who’d been a faithful Christian for 30 years, in the Word and in church that whole time, but it wasn’t until just a few years ago that it hit him with the force of revelation, “God actually loves me!”. Another said “It’s not that I doubt God, I believe in him. I just don’t where he is, or what he thinks about me.” Often this comes out as “I know God loves me, I don’t know if he likes me. Like he tolerates me and is waiting for me to get my act together.”
There’s really good news here though. These confessions are actually the doorway to much greater depth with God. They show one’s graduating from spiritual college and starting a master’s degree.
About a year ago at this time I was profoundly blessed to be able to lead the regional directors and field directors of International Justice Mission on a week-long spiritual retreat in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was a highlight of my life. And one thing we all took home with us was a flat, round, palm-sized stone. And on it was written in permanent marker these words, “I love you. God” I still keep it on my desk, and see it most days, and still a year later many days I actually see it, and hear those words spoken again to me, by God.
Because I, like all of us, need those words every day, til they drop those long 18 inches from our head to our heart, and become knowing. What might you create as daily reminder that God loves you? It’ll be worth the effort!