Do They Love You Back?

I, like many others in the Christian community, read the Daily Bread on a regular basis. I enjoy many of the stories and appreciate how the author’s experience ties in with whatever Scripture is given. I encourage others to read the Daily Bread. Our church receives a bundle to use and hand out each quarter so that lives can and will be touched. I am constantly reminding everyone to make sure they read the Scripture verses listed. I want them to understand that, as interesting as the stories are, it’s the Word of God that changes lives, not the illustrative stories.

I say this as an introduction to one recent article in the Daily Bread. It appeared back in February of this year. While, as I have already said, I enjoy the Daily Bread and use it daily, this particular lesson really touched my heart. It spoke of the movie entitled Fever Pitch. (Having never seen it I refer to what was told.) In the movie Ben Wrightman is an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox baseball team. During the off-season Ben falls in love with Lindsey. All is going well until baseball season opens in the spring. Now she discovers she has fallen in love with two different men – one for the off season and one for baseball season. I quote what happens next. “When Lindsey ends her relationship with Ben because of his fanaticism, he talks with a young friend, who says, ‘You love the Sox. But tell me, have they ever loved you back?’ Those words cause Ben to analyze his priorities and to give more time to the woman he loves, who loves him back.” Anne Cetas, who wrote the article, suggests that we, too, need to ask the question, “Has that hobby or activity or thing ever loved me back?”

It hit me that we all really do need to ask that question. Have the things I do, the things that I think are so important, the things that take up my time and resources ever loved me back? That doesn’t mean that all we do is wasted time and without merit. Hobbies and interests can be both helpful and very beneficial. But, the point is; do we spend appropriate time with the One, and in service to the One, who does love us back? John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And this was done at a time when we didn’t really care. Romans 5:8 makes this clear when it says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And now that I am ‘in Christ’ nothing can separate me from that love. Along with the Apostle Paul, “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38, 39.

I want to give my life, my time, my resources, my attention, and my devotion to the One who does indeed love me back.