Jesus' Love Changes Everything

I can still hear my dad’s voice ringing in my ears from when I was young. If I asked why I needed to do the chorus, tithe from my allowance, mow the yard, or anything I didn’t want to do, I could depend on dad to say, “Because it builds character!”  My dad might just as well have been Calvin’s dad from the delightful comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. I grew up reading this comic. I loved Calvin’s antics and could relate to his back-and-forth with his dad.

For example, in one strip, Calvin asks what is in his food. His dad responds, “Taste it, you’ll love it.” Calvin says, “Oh yeah? And what if I don’t love it?” “Then it will build character.” his dad says. Yep! I heard that before. Once, Calvin wondered why his parents couldn’t buy a snow blower, forcing him to shovel by hand. Calvin’s dad tells him to “keep at it; it builds character.” Calvin remarks that it’s “pretty convenient how every time he builds character, Dad saves a couple hundred dollars.”

When I used to think of character building, I attributed it to just doing things you didn’t want to do but had to do anyway. Like Calvin imitating his dad, “Hey, go do something you hate; being miserable builds character.” And yes, sometimes in life, it feels that way. But the more I grew in my understanding of the unconditional love of Jesus, the more I realized that Paul’s lens of developing endurance and character through trials and hardship wasn’t about doing things just because I had to but because the transformative love of Jesus compels me to.

Jesus’s love offered me a radical reorientation of values that altered my life. It is no longer about me but the collective we. This love shifts my focus outward, and “building character” means more than just forcing myself to do things I really don’t want to do. I get to experience compassion, resilience, forgiveness, and purpose. I realize I’m not promised a life free from pain and heartache, but God does promise to make beauty from my ashes and hope out of my pain. And so, the character building doesn’t come from God miraculously freeing me from burdens or the difficult, ecky things I experience, but it’s how I choose to respond in those moments, especially to those loved around me. This choice to respond with compassion and forgiveness is because I refuse to believe that you must always be miserable to build character (Sorry, Calvin).

There can be joy in the hard things and honest peace in the pain. I hope you get to chuckle at a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon today, reflect on your life, and how God’s love truly changes everything.