Loyalty

Thank you to all you commented on my post yesterday, it was very helpful.  I took time to talk w/ God last night and I feel like we patched things up a bit. 

When I woke up this morning, I started thinking about loyalty and what it means to be loyal.  I remembered this article I had read/heard about before, so I went searching online and was pleased to find it. 

Here is the part I was thinking about when I woke up: 

“We often refer to those who continue in their commitments to Christ as being “faithful.” In the Old Testament, the words for faith, faithful, and faithfulness all come from the Hebrew ‘aman, which means “to be firm or reliable” and implies primarily qualities of loyalty and determination. Thus, being faithful means that we can be trusted to keep our commitments. . . Enduring to the end is keeping those promises throughout our lives—no matter what. It means we don’t quit because of life’s difficulties or temptations. Conversely, failing to endure means backing away from what we’ve started—first promising loyalty to God and then withholding what we promised. Endurance is not so much a matter of stamina as it is a matter of loyalty and integrity. Can you be trusted to faithfully hold your course? Just as a spouse who can be trusted to keep the marriage covenant is called faithful, so those who can be trusted to keep their gospel covenants are called faithful.

I once knew a man who had to decide whether to pay his tithing every time his check came, whether to go to his meetings every time they were held. . . Finally a friend asked him: “Why can’t you just decide once and for all which side you’re on? Why do you have to re-examine your loyalty every time a decision is called for? You are spiritually reinventing the wheel over and over again, and you will never make any progress until you can build on what you already know.”

A few weeks later he called his friend and asked for a ride to some stake meetings. The friend was pleased he was going, and when he told him so, the man responded: “You know, I wouldn’t like it if my wife told me she had to decide every morning whether she still loved me or not, or if she told me she only stayed with me because she hadn’t found a reason to leave—yet. I guess the Lord is entitled to more of a commitment than that from me. I’m ready to stop reinventing the wheel and move on.”

…There must come some point at which our commitment to the gospel and our conviction of its truth settles questions of faith in advance and predetermines our response to whatever challenges that commitment.” Stephen E. Robinson, “Enduring to the End,” Ensign, Oct 1993, 12  

I have experienced how it feels when someone I love stopped communicating with me.  All efforts to continue correspondence fell on deaf ears, with no explanation given.  It was rude and hurtful.  I thought, am I guilty of doing the same when it comes to God?  He has upset me, and while I can assume He knows I’m angry, I am ignoring Him and not taking the time to talk to Him about it.  He should have a chance to let me see His point of view as well.  Instead, I was shutting him out the same way this person did to me.  I didn’t like it when this was done to me, because I was under the impression this person and I were good friends.  "Que sera, sera"  translation: What will be, will be.  I can’t force other people to do what I want, I am only responsible for my own actions.  The same is true with God.  He won’t control us, and He won’t force, if we don't want to talk to Him or be close to Him, He will leave us alone.   

So the question was: Would I be a friend to God?  

Would I as it says in Proverbs 17: 17, Be “A friend [who] loveth at all times”? 

Or would I reject and abandon Him when the going got tough? 

In John 15: 13-15, Christ said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 

While it may sound sacrilegious to some, it seemed like a nice thought to consider whether or not I was a friend to God, and whether or not He would call me His friend.  Could He count of me to stand by Him and be His friend through thick and thin even if I didn't always agree with Him?  

I hope so.  Or a more committed response to that question would be --Yes.  Or: you got that right.  Or better yet: Claro que si.  Translation:  Of course.