One of our favorite family movies is The Princess Bride, a clever Rob Reiner movie (based on a book of the same name by William Goldman) about the love story of the handsome and faithful Westley and the beautiful Buttercup. We have watched it so many times we can quote almost all the lines. The scene of their reunion after many years of Westley’s absence (and his being presumed dead) is one of my favorites:
Westley: “I told you I would always come for you. What didn’t you wait for me?”
Buttercup: “Well, you were dead.”
Westley: “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do it is delay it for a little while.”
Buttercup: “I will never doubt again.”
Westley: “There will never be a need.”
Ah, true love. The stuff that causes the hero or heroine to go to the ends of the earth (or beyond) for their beloved, that causes us to sometimes do irrational things. Songs have been sung, poems composed, quests undertaken, all in the name of true love. We’ll know it when we find it, we say. And when we do find it, it can fill us to overflowing, and we often feel the need to share our good news with the world.
Unless, it seems, our true love is with Jesus. Then so many Christians suddenly get very quiet.
As Christians, we are called to share the good news of God’s true love for us, for all of creation, with others, by word, by example--even to the ends the earth. In Chapter 4 of Almost Christian, Dean writes about the gospel’s missionary impulse, rooted in the reality of a God as “both sender and as the one who is sent.” A God who reaches out, crosses boundaries, seeking us with all the passion and true love of a lover seeking their beloved, even to the point of death and back. We too are sent; called to live lives of sacrificial love, to share our love story, THE love story with others so that they may be part of it too.
A generative faith, a faith that bears fruit, is one that is rooted in true love. Not the romantic love of the movies, but love that is true, honest, unconditional, powerful—the kind of love that changes us in ways we would never expect or even dare to ask for. Love that asks for all of us, and gives all back and then some. Love that is so life giving that it can lead us to bear those fruits of faith as naturally as an apple tree bears apples. A love like that can only come from God.
There are many wonderful ways to open the door, to let us know about that love, about God: catechesis, scripture, worship, living and working together in Christian community. But our formation, our journey, cannot end there. For knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus—that takes time and trust and commitment. And we cannot get there on our own: we need others to show us the way by sharing their own love story; we need the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. Our children, our youth, long to know why God matters to you, to the world. They already know true love matters—they just need someone to help them make that connection.
Help to make that connection: share the great true love story of God’s salvation as experienced in your life. Tell the story of God’s unfathomable love, a love so powerful that even death cannot delay it—so that we will never need to doubt again.
Become sent.
The Reverend Debbie Cook is chair of the Committee on Lifelong Christian Formation [click here to learn more about this ministry]
Benedicta is my name; i want to tell you all how i meant my love. over the years i have be praying to God to bring me to the right person, to show me a man who will be the love of my life, a man who will respect, honor and love me, a man who will be the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh. So I have so much searched and the man was not forth coming. But i meant with a woman who introduced me to a spell caster his is by the name doctor Uwadia Amenifo. This doctor is a great spell caster. He casted the spell for me and said to me that in less than three weeks my husband will locate me. Behold in two weeks exactly my husband located me, and today we are happy together. So i want to use this medium to say to all here that are looking for their true love to come to please immediately contact Doctor Uwadia Amenifo so that he can cast the love spell for you too. Doctor Uwadia email is doctoruwadiaamenifo@gmail.com you can also call him on +2349052015874
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