Love Boldly

Amy Oden

Church of the Resurrection Insights Blog

1 Thessalonians 5:10-15

These words about how to follow Jesus challenge me. Too often, I am not “patient with everyone” (1 Thess 5:14). Too often, I want to “repay a wrong with another wrong” – that will teach them! Too often, I’m preoccupied and don’t “always pursue the good for each other and everyone else” (v. 15).

Why would we ever think love was soft or easy or warm and fuzzy? The strength required for this kind of bold love is right up there with the strength that can lift hundreds of pounds or climb Mount Everest in extreme altitudes without enough oxygen. Loving boldly is not fluff or sentiment. It requires focused intention, self-awareness and self-discipline. And even more than these, loving boldly requires utter surrender to the grace of God.

I start each day with great intentions, only to abandon them by 9am. My intention to love boldly evaporates in the face of work demands, emails to write and to-do lists to check off. I become driven, more committed to getting things done than to “live in peace with each other” (v. 13), “comfort the discouraged” or “help the weak” (v. 14).  Yet it is precisely in these daily demands of emails, tasks and to-do lists where bold love is embodied and made plain.

What if loving boldly was my guide for those tasks? What if I measured my productivity by how boldly I love? What if surrendered to God my need to be seen as important and productive and instead gave myself to God’s daily project of loving boldly, whether anyone else sees it or not?

Oh Love that offered All, give me the strength to surrender into your bold loving today.