The Power of Love

Let's write a story of a tidal wave
We run out of luck
We run out of days
We run out of gas
A hundred miles away
From a station

So go the first few lines of a Patty Griffin song.  Does it sound too familiar? Some days—shoot! some weeks!—nothing seems to go right. But just when things seem completely hopeless, as the singer reminds us, help arrives. She says it this way:

Just before the flood comes
Just before the night falls
Just before the blood runs
Into the valley
Just before my eyes go
Just before we can't go any further
Love throws a line to you and me.

Since “God is love,” according to I John 4:8, it is God who “throws a line” to us when we are at our wit’s end. And he usually uses other people to do so. I kept thinking of this idea on Sunday.  In the morning service we sang that marvelous song, “The Power of Your Love,” that says,

Hold me close,
Let your love surround me.
Bring me near,
Draw me to your side.
And as I wait, I’ll rise up like the eagle
And I will soar with you,
Your spirit leads me on,
In the power of your love.

Love is a mighty force, and everyone craves it. When God’s love surrounds us, the result should be that we move to share his love with others. We never know what a kind word, a phone call, or even a smile will do for someone desperate for human connection.  We will never ever regret going the extra mile, lending a hand, and taking time to be there.

Do you remember that old song, “Let the Lower Lights be Burning” by Phillip Bliss?  The last verse says this: “Trim your feeble lamp, my brother: Some poor sailor, tempest tossed, trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost.”

Will we let God use us to “throw a line” to someone in need? Can we let our lights shine and bring people to God by the power of love? To borrow the words of our President, “Yes, we can!”

“Beloved,” says the apostle John, “let us love one another,” and he tells us how: “in deed and in truth.”

 --Sherry Poff