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Previous | Next A simple love story
Don Boddy
One day, Bob, a young single man, went for a walk in a park. While feeding ducks by the pond, he saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. She was stunning, wearing a beautiful, flowing summer dress that brought out the colour of her eyes. He sat there, watched her and wondered if he would ever get a chance to meet her. As she laughed with friends, he was sure she would be a fun person to be with. Every part of him said he wanted to meet her and that an encounter with her could be life-changing.
After about 20 minutes, she left. One of her friends came over to watch the ducks. Bob knew that this might be his only chance to discover who this amazing woman was, so he mustered up his courage and walked over to talk to this person.
“Hi. How is it going? Nice ducks, eh?”
“Yeah,” said the stranger.
“Sorry to be so forward, but I just gotta know,” said Bob anxiously. “Who was that woman you were with? She was amazing!”
“You mean Jennifer?”
“Jennifer,” said Bob. It felt good just saying her name. “Can you tell me something about her?”
The stranger smiled. “You are right. She is amazing. She is a lot of fun to be with, has a great sense of humour and has a massive heart for people. She comes from a great family and has a great relationship with her parents. She loves to cook, bake and sew. She enjoys all sports, long walks and travelling. She is a massage therapist and says that one of the things she looks forward to when she gets married is being able to give her husband a massage at the end of the day. And, you wanna know something else?”
“Yeah, but what else could there be?” replied Bob in astonishment.
The stranger went on, “She told us that she knows you and would love to get to know you better.”
“She knows me!” Bob could not believe this. “I just gotta connect with her. Please, how can I do that?”
“Are you sure you are ready to take the next step?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Bob shouted.
The stranger reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little book entitled The Four Laws to Get to Know Jennifer and went on to explain the little booklet. Bob sat there confused and frustrated, wondering why all this information was needed.
The heart of the matter
One of the most grievous errors the church has made is to reduce a relationship with Jesus Christ to a series of propositional statements. What do I mean by propositional statements? Propositional statements are simple statements of truth. The problem is that we tend to present these statements of truth to unbelievers as if by themselves they will convince people to affirm a belief in God and convert. We do the same in teaching believers. In so doing, we have taken Jesus’ invitation to a love relationship and twisted it into a series of facts which need to be understood. If any of us who are married talked about our spouses using propositional statements, those listening to us would wonder what kind of a cold, nonrelational, disconnected person we were.
I am in no way negating truth or Scripture. I believe in the inspired, inerrant and infallible Word of God. I believe the Bible to be powerful, and the illumination of the Holy Spirit can cause a life change in those who read it. The invitation of Christianity, though, is to a relationship to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is one of the means to this relationship, but not an end in itself. Jesus said of His own generation: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life” (John 5:39-40).
Jesus’ invitation to love Him
“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love.” Jesus spoke these words in John 15:9. They are a very intimate description of the web of relationships in which Jesus lived and to which He invites us.
One of the truths which we hold to is the Trinity: the idea that God is one, and that inside God there are three persons, the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit. As we struggle to comprehend this theological truth, we must be careful not to overlook the mutual love the three persons of the Trinity have for one another. God is a community of love, and it is from this context that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son” (John 3:16). This is why Jesus can speak of love so eloquently in John 15. He invites us to love Him from our experience of His love in our lives.
Jesus goes on to say in John 15 that our love for Him will be seen in two ways: by keeping His commandments and by loving one another. This is where the invitation to relationship gets lost. We forget the love and call people to be moral, religious or nice. Any person, with enough hard work, can achieve a level of morality, and, more often than not, these people then become arrogant and mean. Any person can be religious; all you have to do is act, dress, talk and sing correctly and surround your life with religion. Any person can be nice – having manners, being respectful and practicing the values we all learned in kindergarten. These are all external acts which help us to get along in society. But what Jesus calls us to is for more than that – a love affair with Him which affects our heart, soul, mind and strength and impacts all who are in our lives (Matthew 22:37-40).
This relationship with Jesus begins with an acceptance of His love for us and a desire to love Him. Then the Holy Spirit enters us, makes us the Father’s children and begins to change us to be more like Jesus (Romans 8:28-30).
One of the realities of a relationship is that it is always dynamic, never static. Relationships are fluid, changing, growing and tough to measure. In any kind of relationship, the only real question is, “Am I becoming a better lover?” This is also true when it comes to Jesus. Once we fall in love with Jesus, the question He will ask is, “Do you love Me?”
The use of story
One way we can foster this love affair between Jesus and His people is to rediscover the art of storytelling. People are not looking for a God who is presented like a math formula or defined through debate. They are looking to discover a God who is active and touching their lives. History is exactly that – “His story”.
We need to learn how to tell His story of our life. This will require us to reflect on the past and to have a sense of the future. Three years ago, I had a rough spring – I resigned from my church, the church had a serious fire, and I was unemployed for three months. Sharing my story of what happened and how God was working in my life at that difficult time will connect with people more than a remote statement about faithfulness as an attribute of God.
We need to learn how to tell stories which connect God, culture and people. Jesus told stories of lost sons, sheep, widows and everyday experiences. We should do the same, to move people towards Jesus.
Hollywood has stolen our story because we have stopped telling it. Movie after movie has themes of redemption, love and the supernatural. People are willing to spend nine dollars to hear these stories, when all that is needed is someone to share the story of a Father who is in love with them and wants their love in return.
All Bob wanted was a phone number – an entry point to a relationship. Many people are looking for an entry point to a relationship with Jesus. Maybe we need to put away our booklets, drawings and sermons and begin to listen to people – hear their stories, share our stories and connect them to His story, a sweeping epic of love between God and people.
Don Boddy lives in Portage la Prairie, Man. This article was originally published in the June 23, 1999 issue of The Messenger, periodical of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference.
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Last modified May 3, 2001.
© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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