A Question in the Stillness

Posted on Feb 01, 2016 Topic : Weekly Devotionals

As we pull the covers to our chins at night and settle into our pillows, one question should bring our day into the presence of God for his scrutiny. Did the life I lived today please you, God?

How many things do we have to check off our to-do list before we can say yes to a question like that? How many questions do we have to count before we can be done with them all and drop off to sleep?

Only one.

Have I loved well?

St. John of the Cross once said that “at the evening of our day we shall be judged by our loving.” As we look back over our day, what we have done is not as important as how we have done it. Better to do little with much love than much with little love. For without love, whatever we do will be dismissed with a judicial wave of heaven’s hand as just so many trivial pursuits (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

So it’s the end of the day, and each of us is lying in bed, reflecting. Have I loved well? Has love been the beating heart pulsing through all my activities? Can it be heard in all my conversations? Seen in my eyes? Felt when other people are in my presence? Was the truth I spoke today spoken in love? Were the decisions I made today based on love? Were my reactions? My devotions?

Have I loved well?

If we can answer yes to that question, it is enough.

It may not be enough for our employer. It may not be enough for our fellow workers. It may not be enough for all the carpools and committees and other things on our calendars.

It may not even be enough for us.

But it is enough for God.

And that should make it enough for us.