October Valentine

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

The Bible tells me so.

As a child, that was the Gospel Truth. I believed it whole-heartedly, 100 percent, without one reservation or doubt. It stood as the realest reality real could get. Jesus loves me.

But as I got older and interacted with the world, my absolute certainty slipped a little here and there.

Do you remember the first time someone implied (or maybe outright declared) to you that God’s love is conditional? Or questionable? Or based on your performance? Was it that bully in first grade or Frosh year biology teacher or, heaven forbid, a parent?

When did you first start questioning God’s love? Was it from watching the wrong T.V. shows or diving into the wrong kind of music? Or was it a circumstance like getting dumped by the love of your life, not getting into the college you dreamed of or receiving devastating news from a doctor? Did you lose someone early in life through death or divorce or rift? Has the world convinced you your struggles must be the result of an un-loving God, if there is One at all?

Perhaps you know, in the sense that you say you know, Jesus loves you, but not in a way that heals or provides or shows up when He’s needed. So, you know He loves you, but…

When did we stop singing “Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so”- really, truly, with all of our hearts, Gospel Truth, 100 percent, without one reservation or doubt?

Maybe you’ve never sung or believed it at all.

In church last Sunday, we sang a song with a chorus of four lines: Oh, how He loves us, Oh, how He loves us, Oh, how He loves us, Oh, how He loves.

At first, though the tune sounded nice and I like to sing about Jesus loving me, I grumbled to myself that it was a mite bit repetitive. *sigh*

But as we kept singing it over and over, repetitive words sung repeatedly, I started listening…

Then… I started feeling…

Then… I started crying…

Much later, while we still sang the same song, I started believing.

Not just… yeah, Jesus loves me… cool.

No… JESUS loves me. Jesus LOVES me. Jesus loves ME.

The realest reality as real can get washed over me in waves. JESUS LOVES ME.

That changes EVERYTHING. How I talk, how I act, how I RE-act, how I love others…

I’ve been a Christian most of my life, making a decision when I was six years old. But, like everyone else on the planet, I’ve walked through my share of valleys. And I can’t say I never doubted God’s love. So many times I felt unloved, mainly because I believed I screwed up beyond acceptance let alone love. Other times, life delivered so many blows I couldn’t think of anything but how much it hurt.

Know what I’m talking about?

The Gospel Truth, though, is that…

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

Yes, Jesus loves me.

The Bible tells me so.

Try singing that over ten or twenty or thirty times, and just see if you might start believing it… really, truly, with all of your heart, Gospel Truth, 100 percent, without one reservation or doubt.