Incline

Do you remember an incline to the top? Maybe it was a ski slope or a mountain, but travel from bottom-to-top demanded going up. My earliest memory of riding an incline was to Ghost Town in the Sky at Maggie Valley, NC. As a little girl, it was a bit scary – as a big girl, it’s still pretty scary!

Burt Bacharach wrote it and Jackie DeShannon sang it -- “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.” This may be surprising to some, but even in 1965, this wasn’t new news. No, love had been on the decline since … well, the Garden. Just today, I pondered how sin has so blemished the beauty of God’s perfect creation – the eternal soul fashioned after its Creator. We chose to live in the power of who WE are and demand OUR way – what WE want, when WE want it, how WE want it, trample another to get it, dare another to get in OUR way, and if another gets in OUR way WE make them pay. Does this sound loving to you? Jesus said, “As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you; continue ye in My love.” (John 15:9). Where love is in decline, there is never fullness of joy as promised when we keep God’s commands and abide in Him “that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” (John 15:11). Christ continues this discourse on love – “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (V.13). Many times we relate this verse exclusively to how Jesus laid down His life for us, but there is more. When we consider WHAT Jesus laid aside for us, just how willing are WE to put aside pride (for humility), cruelty (for mercy), hate (for love), harshness (for gentleness)? What will we do for the sake of real love? The breathtaking views from Israel’s Masada and Megiddo would have just been pictures on a page risking my choosing the otherwise scary upward trek to the top. Know this, true disciples of Christ always bend (incline) toward Love. Will you make the incline?