Sometimes we wait for God to give us a sign before we’re willing to act – a burning bush, the perfect collision of a million events into one loud and clear epiphanous moment, a phone call, an open door, a strike of lightning, a short straw, a dream, or a food-shaped message. It’s legitimate I suppose, and it’s how God has spoken occasionally in the past, and maybe in the future too. But, why in the world do we wait for this?

And sometimes when we wait we tell ourselves that we’re just waiting for God to make it obvious – that we wait because we want to obey and don’t want to be out of His will. And that all may be very right and true. But also, I think what we sometimes actually mean if we’re really honest with ourselves is, “I’m scared, so I’ll just sit here and wait and keep asking God, over and over again, to send me a sign. When He gives me a really clear sign (God can do anything if He wants, right?), then I will act, then I will move.” Or even,“Surely not me, surely that’s for someone else to do – someone better, stronger, smarter, richer.  So, when he makes me better, stronger, smarter and richer, then I will act, then I will move.”

What if the most important sign we get in life is not something we receive with our five senses but, rather, it is already nestled in our hearts on the inside, whispering its desires, pushing and pulling through the stubborn, fragile lining of good intentions? Or maybe it’s not even at that stage. Maybe it hasn’t even been born yet. What if anything worth starting actually starts on the inside, in a hollow room waiting to be filled or a dried-up pile of twigs waiting to be lit? 

I’ve been thinking about Moses lately, wondering about his calling and the way in which it came about. Maybe for Moses, the branches and thorns that made up that little burning shrub had actually been collecting for decades, piling up in the corners and creases of his heart and home, until one day the pile became so big that he couldn’t contain it anymore. Not in himself anyway.  I think the cry of Yahweh, resulting in the call of Moses, goes back to the days when he was much younger – the accumulation of watching, listening, learning, playing, ignoring, crying, killing, running, stumbling, working… loving.  That burning bush was merely an echo from a call that had been ringing out for decades in the heart and flesh of human being Moses. In the end, it was love that drove Yahweh to act – to set His people free – and it was love that drove Moses to act on behalf of Yahweh. A seed of love for his own people, planted in Moses as a young boy, finally shot through the soil and sprouted into a bush, and was set ablaze by holy fire. This would be a fire raging with justice and love; a fire of complete and utter transformation. A burning bush? That bush obviously didn’t burn forever, and probably not longer than a day. But a burning heart? Now there’s a fire that will never be extinguished…

Most of the time, no matter what God chooses to use as a signpost in our lives, we get there – to that sign – because we grew there, from the inside-out. I think that inside-out stuff is the real sign after all.

So here’s a crazy idea: What if the sign is love? It’s the most simplest, most powerful, most clear sign we could ever receive. And let’s be honest – most of the time, we need simple and powerful and clear.

And what if this is the sign God has given us all along? Maybe we should stop asking God for a sign, and instead simply ask for the gift of love for another. Where there is love, there is undying perseverance and motivation. Where there is love, it doesn’t matter if you’re not good enough or strong enough or smart enough or rich enough. Love is our sign to act. The greatest act in the history of all the world was accomplished because of love. Because of love, Jesus came. Because of love, Jesus lived and died and, to everyone’s surprise, became undead and made a way for us to become undead too. Because of love for us.

And if that kind of love can call the Christ to the greatest act someone can ever do – to give up life for another – then surely that kind of love can call you and I.  

On this day, it is no different, if that kind of love is alive in us. That is to say, if Jesus is alive in us. It is no different at all. When love is the sign that points you to action, you will measure “success” only by love, which really means, only by that which is eternal, that which never fails, that which always wins.

Do you want to rise to action? Then ask for love.

Do you have love? Then rise to action!

There is no other way in the Kingdom of God for where there is love, the Kingdom always grows.

(P.S. The photo above is of children I love in India. For me, that’s one of the ways this post becomes more than words. Who do you love?)

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© Stephanie Ratcliff and stephanieratcliff.com, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Stephanie Ratcliff and stephanieratcliff.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.