the motive is love

If today had a theme it would have something to do with morality. And for anybody that's known me for more than about 47 seconds, you know that I, too, struggle with this. But here is what I re-learned today:

The motive is love - love of God, and love of others.

Obedience and morality come only AFTER a relationship is defined. Once you love someone - and you feel as though they love you in return, it is only then that you willfully obey them.

It starts with trust, which is followed by love, and ends with obedience.

As people in the 21st century, we do a great job of making the rules. It is much easier to follow a list of things to do, without ever getting any emotions or feelings involved. I know people who live by their planner. When you ask one of these people to lunch, it's an ordeal - figuring out if you can be squeezed in to a time slot - but only for an hour - because they have another appointment. We feel, in our PDA infested age, that if we could just simply restructure life and the things that come with it as a list of things to check off before 5pm (and not a minute later) we will have had a successful day.

But then I ask, what is the measure of success after all? What about for the rest of us who are relational?

If we go with the theory that we were created to be in a relationship with the One True God, and that nothing else would satisfy, then where do we get the idea that morality checklists are the way to success?

Donald Miller says this:
"Imagine how much a person's life would be changed if he trusted that he was loved by God? He could interact with the poor and not show partiality, he could love his wife easily and not expect her to redeem him, he would be slow to anger because redemption was no longer at stake, he could be wise and giving with his money because money no longer represented points, he could give up on formulas of religion, knowing that checking stuff off a spiritual to-do list was a worthless pursuit anyway, and he could love people without expecting anything in return."

Basically, it would be beautiful.

I was sitting today in Chick-Fil-A, chillin with my waffle fries, when I noticed an interesting scenario about to take place. I saw a teenage girl - who probably just turned 16 - kinda just hanging out, sort of pacing back and forth. This caught my eye because you don't really see this happen at a fast food restaurant, so I set my book down but still pretended to not be very interested in anything except for my straw. I saw her talk to one of the young workers and the employee darted into the bathroom. He came back almost immediately and said something to this girl. It wasn't more than two minutes later when I saw a semi-tall, pretty lanky teenage boy - probably also 16 - in a Chick-Fil-A uniform and rubber gloves, come out of the bathroom. He had been cleaning. He scuffed his feet when he walked. Right when the young lady saw him she said, "I'm just gonna go ahead and go..."
They're dating!! How cute! She came all the way to his work, just to be with him!
But then my cheesy little grin went away pretty quickly when I saw his face.
His face was crimson with embarrassment, and he barely picked his head up to acknowledge her as he said with a sigh, "ok. i'm sorry." And with that, she was out the door.

I don't know why I was so moved over this. Maybe because I felt so bad for him that his steady girlfriend, of I'm sure about 2 weeks, now got to see him as, not a knight in shining armor, but as a fast food employee in rubber gloves having cleaned the bathroom... he was devastated and it broke my heart.

I say all of that to say that there is a certain freedom in getting our feelings of redemption from God and not other people.

It isn't quite the American dream, but it is DEFINITELY the human dream - the deepest desire and need of our heart and soul.

Anything else is a cheap imitation of a manmade answer to a God sized question.