by Elizabeth Haarberg

Consequences of love.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

I moderated a small group at a parochial school sophomore class retreat. My son is a student in the class. He was not happy that I was in his space and talking to his friends. Even though he wasn’t in my group, and I didn’t talk to him, he gave me the “stink eye” most of the day.

The leader needed an additional moderator to make the numbers of students work out. I told her at the last minute I would help.

Even though I knew he would be upset, the pull on my heart to help the other 54 kids in the class was greater.

Sometimes we do the things to which we are called for the benefit of the whole, even if it means the possibility of rejection by an individual.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword [of division between belief and unbelief]. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;and a man’s enemies will be the members of his [own] household [when one believes and another does not].”
Matthew 10:34-36

My son’s rejection of my presence can’t override my being called to do something that affects him.

This doesn’t mean we cause division and strife. It means that we listen to the Holy Spirit, and when we’re called we answer, regardless of who says we shouldn’t go, or if it causes anger.

Rejection is never a reason to ditch a call from God. It’s an obstacle that should be discerned.

“If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you.”
John 15:18

If you are a Christian, that means you are full of the Holy Spirit given to you by Jesus. If someone is rejecting you they are rejecting Jesus first, because He lives in you.

Jesus suffered the ultimate rejection when we crucified Him. He only came to love and be loved. Instead, the love he embodied was so intense that it caused jealousy, rebellion, and a multitude of other feelings people had to face.

Love is the most radical emotion we will ever deal with.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado