Evidence through Action

How do we know God loves us when we can't feel it?

...Then I remembered St. Patrick’s ministry in Ireland.

Way back in the mid-400s, Patrick began traveling in that country, moving from settlement to settlement, staying with the people, loving them and working among them. Through his ministry, monastic communities sprang up. These communities were different from what we normally think of when we think of monastic communities where monks separated themselves from the rest of society for a life of solitude and prayer.

These were communities of committed Christ followers who lived and worked together, sharing resources, love, and life together. There were men and women, adults, and kids; some were single, some were married, some had families—some were priests, but most weren't, and they were all together in community.

One of the things that made these communities so cool was the way they treated outsiders.

There was always a gatekeeper, not to keep anybody out, but to be on duty all the time so that anyone who wanted to come in could come in, no matter what time of the day or night it was.

If you visited the community, the gatekeeper would welcome you first and then call everyone to come greet you. The abbot or abbess (head of the community) would immediately come out to make sure you felt at home.

It wouldn't matter what people were doing; they would stop because making guests feel welcome was more important than anything else. Then they'd show you to the guest house—the best accommodations in the whole place.

When it was time to eat, you'd eat at the head table with the abbot/abbess. It would be clear that you could stay as long as you wanted, but you were also free to leave at any time. You could eat with the community, work with the community, worship with the community—always welcome to share in everything about the community.

If you stayed for a while, they'd assign you a ‘soul friend’ to talk to—no agenda—just about whatever was on your mind. Eventually, if you continued to stay they'd talk to you about God's love and offer you the opportunity to become more than a guest.

It was a slow process of revealing God's love—a process that started with the concept of belonging and acceptance and moved only gradually toward commitment. It was a process that took time because it was about providing evidence of God's love. Not evidence in the form of skilled argument or tight logic; not even the evidence of a specific feeling even though that was probably part of it for most people.

It was the evidence of action—consistent actions of love, continued day in and day out, actions that made God's love visible and tangible and real through the welcoming, caring, support, and nurture of people. Evidence through action that God loves people and values them simply because they are. Read More