Today's Daily Lesson is from John 14 verse 23:
"Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'
Not very long ago, I was talking with a friend who is taking the first spiritual steps toward new life. He has been an addict for years and his life has all the wounds to show for it. Using has cost him more than he even knows.
He called wanting help with step 3 in the 12 steps. It is the step where one turns one's self and will completely over to God. My friend called me because he said he was having trouble. He said he just wasn't "feeling it".
The "it" my friend wasn't I supposed to be God, or perhaps some perverted sense of God. I spoke honestly with my friend and told him that I really didn't think God was all that interested in him "feeling it" right now. For one thing, I told him his feelings are out of whack. After years of using, how would he know if and what he's feeling? But on an even deeper level, I told my friend that maybe God isn't interested in him "feeling it" because that's exactly what he's been chasing after all his life - a feeling, a high, some ecstatic, spiritual experience.
I told my friend was I didn't think God was going to let him "feel it" - not now anyway. What I think is that right now God is not even there to be felt. God has left my friend's body; God has not left my friend, but God has left my friend's body. And what God is waiting on is for my friend to make a decision to act, not on a feeling or the hope for one, but rather to act out of sheer obedience to God's command. It is then, and only then, that God will come back into my friend's body and perhaps give him something of a spiritual experience.
This is all clear in today's Lesson from Jesus. Jesus teaches that it is only after the act of obedience - after obedience to the Word - that God the Father then comes back to live inside of us. The Temple must be cleansed, before the glory of God comes to dwell. Until then, God may be with us, but God refuses to come inside us so that we can "feel it".
And what does obedience to the Word look like? Well, I told my friend it looks like this for him. "Here is where you will find the spiritual experience you are looking for," I said. "Do what your sponsor says. Period. Don't go where trouble can find you. Stay clean and sober - today. That's it."
"That's it?" he asked.
"That's it," I said. "That's the spiritual experience you are looking for."
When we hung up the phone he sounded surprised, but not altogether disappointed.
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