Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere

by Savannah Guthrie

Instead of feeling guilt for not keeping up with devout practices, imagining that God was disappointed or disgusted with me or had written me off entirely, what if I believed that what he was really doing was loving me the whole time?

In a way, a bonus commandment was hidden within the two that Jesus mentioned. Love the Lord God. Love your neighbor. And love yourself.

God loves us, and his love is contagious. If we stick close to him, we can’t help but catch it.

‘My most important identity is not my name but my being loved by Jesus the Son of God.’

You can remember him from the past and find confidence. You can imagine him in the future and find hope. But in the now, that’s where you find him.

God’s word is not a reference book in a library that we pull off the shelf when we want information. There is nothing inert or bookish in these words. God’s words . . . hit us where we live. The moment we know this, that God speaks to us, delight is spontaneous.

Praying their names feels like an act of love, an act of meaning, and an act of hope. Lifting up the people I love before the God I trust draws me closer to him and to them. When time is short, lives are harried, minds are distracted, and our internal dialogues are burdened, we can say their names, trusting that God will take it from there.

God is with me. He’s got me. I am not alone. Whatever happens, I will never be alone. He has brought me to this moment, and he is not about to abandon me now.

God isn’t looking for perfect words or pious exaltations. He isn’t looking for posturing or pretense. He is looking for the mess. In other words, he is looking for us.

Rest in the knowledge that you are loved and forgiven and embraced.

Doubt is just faith being worked out, like a muscle. Put in the effort, do the reps, and ask the questions—it’s spiritual strength you’re building.

Faith does not and cannot explain why the innocent are allowed to suffer. It simply gives us hope that there is a place and time when that suffering will end, when connections will be restored, when life will be eternal—“On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Faith is believing God will take you where you’re meant to go, one way or the other. You cannot write yourself out of your destiny. He won’t let you.