I grew up in North and South Carolina. And although the Presbyterian churches of my childhood weren't all that Southern in feel, I had plenty of encounters with the church patterns of Southern Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, and so on. These included prayers liberally sprinkled with the word "just" and Jesus pronounced with three or four syllables. Sometimes this all came together in the faith profession, "We just love Jesus!"In the congregations I attended, people didn't talk so much about loving Jesus, though I presume most folks there did. So was this just a style difference between us and our fellow Christians from other denominations? Is it like the differences between happily married couples, some who can't go five minutes without saying, "I love you," and others who rarely speak the words but seem to care deeply for each other?
'By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments." 1 John talks a lot about love, about God being love and about us loving God, about the relationship we have with God through Jesus. Sometimes Christians can talk about their connection to God in language that sounds more a contract or formula than a relationship. Believe the right things and get the goodies. But love can't ever be reduced to a contract or a formula.
What does it look like to love God? On the flip side, what does it mean that God loves us? Love seems to me more a dance than a formula, with each party moving and the other responding. So what does it mean to dance with God?
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