A Meaningful Advent Devotion from a Former Professor

I studied religion and biblical languages at the School of Religion at Belmont University. Four professors there had the greatest influence on me, Dr. Michael Ruffin, Dr. Robert Byrd, Dr. Ben Curtis, and Dr. Marty Bell. All but Dr. Ruffin continue to teach at Belmont, and as you know, I reference Dr. Ruffin's blog here at the Lair and he is now a pastor in Augusta, GA.

I have blogged before about my education at Belmont and how thankful I am for my time there. I received in the mail yesterday an Advent Devotional Book written by the faculty (and some students) in the School of Religion. As I read through the various entries, I was unsurprised that each day's devotional was solid, well written, and helpful. Then, I read these words from Dr. Marty Bell's devotional contribution. While standing in my kitchen unpacking groceries, I was moved to stop reading and thank God. Here is what he wrote:

"In the great game of life, we are prone to make two mistakes: we keep expecting unconditional love from human relationships and we keep expecting conditional love from God. That is a recipe for disappoint and fear. If we allow God's love to get a hold of us, we come to see that God loves us, and there is not a thing in this world we can do about that. In the end, human love is always conditional, but God's love is always unconditional."