I used to listen to Tom Shrader a lot. I found his radio show “Priority Living” while listening to a station in San Antonio. From there, I picked him up through podcasts and devoured pretty much all of his library. He had an excellent and engaging (as well as quite humorous) way of presenting the Gospel and the Christian life. His life experiences were vast and interesting – a drunk and a commercial real-estate agent; then a speaker and teacher, a church founder. A man whose wife died of cancer, and then who died of cancer himself in January of 2019.
I was reminded of Tom Shrader today by some thoughts on a line Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans. It’s rather famous, and often either misquoted or misused. People have a way of leaving things off of it. While he writes in full “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” quite often when faced with a challenge, people only give a shrug and say “all things work together for good.” Well, they do and they don’t.
You can’t leave off those qualifiers – “for those who love God” and “for those who are called according to his purpose.” Those who do and are have the ultimate destiny of a life in heaven with him, so of course all things work together for good…even the crappy stuff. But for those who don’t love God and are aren’t called according to his purpose? Nothing ultimately works together for good. On the contrary, it’s all working together for a life that is eternally separated from God. That’s not working out at all.
But the thing is, these aren’t the words that Tom points to when he says the verse is misquoted or misused. He goes to the first three words instead: “And we know…”
We know. While all of the words are meaningful, it’s in the confidence of those first three words that we really get our hope. Things might suck right now, but we know God is at work, and that work is for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
The calling according to his purpose…well, that’s his business. But what about you? Do you really love him? And what does it mean to love God? I guess we could start with “what does it mean to love anyone?” If you love someone, are you content to go to their house once a week for an hour and when that hour’s up bolt for the door so you can get home to watch the game? If they wrote you a letter, would you leave it unread? If they gave you a gift, would you toss it out unopened?
I may be old and my dating days far behind me, but I still remember how some things are done. I still remember the anticipation and longing to be with someone – the thinking of them constantly. And even if you’ve been married for 35 years, you don’t stop caring for that person. It may have started with excitement that has tapered off, but it’s still a commitment that lasts. The point is, love from start to finish has never meant neglect or taking the other for granted. So, do you love God?
Let’s get this right. There’s nothing we can do to earn our way into God’s good graces. If there was, the whole work of Jesus would be meaningless. But God takes care of that (the calling people “according to his purpose”). And we all react differently, so I’m definitely not advocating some kind of “checklist for love” (if you think you need a checklist for love, you probably aren’t in it). But his grace should stir us in some way, much like the love we have among ourselves. And because of this, wouldn’t it be natural that we love him all the more?
In reality, we will never love him enough, but his grace covers even that. Still, loving God can never be a casual experience or occasional thought. It’ll never be perfect, but it should still be there, front and center in our lives. Perhaps once we’ve confronted that, then we’ll come to know that in all things…it’ll be alright.
I recommend Tom Shrader’s stuff. We lost a great teacher when he died, and I guarantee you’ll find something solid and interesting in his teaching.