When jarring events have taken place in my life and community, in the nation, or in the world, I’ve found wise counsel in the New Testament book of Jude: “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (1:21).
Keeping ourselves in the “love of God” is a spiritual state of thought that has at times felt to me much like sheltering in a safe, known, and trusted physical location. But God’s love, as we read of it in the Bible, is not physical, but spiritual. Nor is it shy, hesitant, or reclusive. It is right there, on the spot, wherever we are. Whatever the human need, we can look to divine Love to act with power to help and save.
This model of God’s love as always present and all-inclusive would naturally lead us to engage in life’s issues with confidence, to face and conquer what is not in harmony with God and work to bring forth better things—but always doing so within the peacefulness, wisdom, and safety of Love. This model of God’s love challenges us to lift up our thought of ourselves and others, to be constructive and not condemning, to love unfailingly while praying unceasingly.
