Photo by The North Face
I have always been teaching people in our church that you know what is important to a person not by their words, but by their actions because words are cheap, but actions are costly.
It has been a rough several weeks for me in the area of commitments and with the things that matter the most. I have been trying to remain faithful to a lot of the commitments that I have made to God, family and church. Sometimes priorities change depending on the circumstances, but regardless, there is something important about integrity to what we promised. It is simply doing what you say you will do without excuses or justification.
I need to recalibrate and reprioritize this week.
But I am thankful for Christina. She has been patient with me for all these weeks. It would be easy for a person to take advantage of someone who shows a lot of grace, but then as I see her heart of humility and long-suffering (Greek translation of patience), I am cut to the heart. A person wants to definitely try harder out of gratitude.
As I was reflecting on these thoughts, I was reminded about Christ’s patience and love for us. As we have started our new Sunday Celebration series, “Names of God” for the Advent season, I was struck once again at God’s heart for us. It says in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” The word “follow” in the Hebrew is “radaph” which is translated as, “to chase, to pursue, to search for eagerly, to track down, and to hunt for someone.”
What a thought?!
Who doesn’t want to be pursued or chased by a God who loves them and is committed to them, especially when we have failed? And guess what? The chasing and pursuing will be for the rest of our lives. Amazing. Now that is commitment.