Love what He Commands

Almighty God, give us the increase of faith, hope, and love; and, that we may obtain what you have promised, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I generally don’t like to be made to do anything. Growing up, the things I was made to do either didn’t turn out well or I made up my mind that it was my idea in the first place. That’s how I ended up proudly parading Anna, my bronze and white speckled Milking Shorthorn cow, into the milking parlor stalls at the State Fair. Back home, the poop smell was embarrassing if it lingered after all the scrubbing into first period Government class with Mr. Bergstrom. But, at the State Fair, dirty jeans were kind of a badge of honor I got to wear as I guided that 1300lb animal with a tiny, rope halter. The city people would part like the waters for Moses, happy to get out of the way of what might as well have been a wild woolly mammoth.

All the early hours in the barn at home, sleepy-eyed and sitting on a 5 gallon bucket while one group of cows finished milking, seemed like a lifetime away. The time spent practicing showmanship in our front yard, chasing cows caught grazing in the neighbors’ cornfield, and changing out of farm clothes into Friday night football outfits (or a band uniform!) was nothing I would have chosen. I was made to do it and, if you ask my parents, it was all part of the vague and powerful Scripture to “train them up in the way they should go.”

Though I doubt Solomon had milking cows specifically in mind when he wrote Proverbs, the prayer this week made me think about how often I need to be made to do something that is for my good and, ultimately, for God’s glory. I am learning at 40 that my character grows at the pace of a snail. If you know of a slower animal, you can insert their speed here. A snail is 0.029 miles per hour and if you’ve ever sat and watched one… well, let’s just say most of us would have a hard time waiting around to see any real progress. What seems absolutely bonkers to me is that snails do make progress. They appear at the top of a door frame or next to a waterfall or on the railing of a back deck and they have arrived from somewhere. Praise!

When I think about what I was asking the Lord to provide at 19, 25, 30, 36, and yesterday, I hear the echoes of this Collect as His encouragement, His invitation for me. I guess you could say, if I was a snail, I might have asked God for a faster pace or to summit a peak, or that the trail ahead of my slimy journey be even and easy. And, I guess you could say God’s answer has often been, “No. Your character cannot handle that.” And, I don’t know what a snail thinks about its pace or if it does at all, but I would usually much prefer to go faster, on a different course, and with a knowable (preferably pictured and documented) destination. Yet, God invites me to a journey where the only known thing is His goodness– His perfect character that keeps promises, never forgets, and always provides.

Because of His great mercy, He indeed is able to provide an “increase of faith, hope, and love;” and to also “make us love what you command.” What an incredibly bold and humble prayer. To love what God has commanded is to trust that our obedience will give a gift far greater than what we’ve asked when we’ve asked for it. Our obedience in love proves our treasuring of the Giver above all else. And, like a child complaining about early morning chores who later basks in the glow of State Fair joy, God sees our whole lives and knows exactly how and when to give us what we need so that we can be more formed into His likeness. And not our need for bread and clothes and shelter, but the needs of our hearts as adopted children in His care. He knows of that future day when we will glow with the good care of a Father who has loved us all the while.