"The final secret I think, is this; that the words 'You shall love the Lord your God,' become in the end less a command than a promise."(F. Buechner "Listening to Your Life" p. 162)
The greatest commandment according to Jesus. I've never been good with commandments. I certainly will take instruction, but tell me what I have to do, and the little rebel in me wants to play. Though in all honesty he rarely gets those chances.
I've never thought about the commandments being more promise than commandment. Yet instinctively none of the 10 are on my radar screen to break. I won't do those things I'm commanded not to do, not out of fear of punishment, but because out of love I can't nor do I want to.
All of the temptations to go against them exist in our world. Yet somehow out of that first promise, that I'll love God, because God first loved me, everything else seems to flow. I can and want to love God, because even in my worst moments, God is there. Not with a smack to the head, but with a more of a "come on, let's try that again, differently this time."
Blessings,
Ed
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