The word that changed how I think about love
Dear friend.
You know the moment. You push open the front door - tired, maybe a bit frayed around the edges - and your dog nearly knocks you sideways with joy. No conditions. No grudges. Just pure, loyal delight that you’re home.
It’s a small thing. But it raised a question this week that I couldn’t quite shake: when did I last love someone like that?
In today’s video, I’m sitting in 1 Samuel 20 with David and Jonathan. Jonathan asks David to show him “the faithful love of the Lord” - and that phrase translates a single Hebrew word: hesed.
Hesed is one of the richest, deepest words in the whole Bible. Covenant loyalty. Love that holds firm when things get hard. Faithfulness that doesn’t depend on how you’re feeling today. Love that keeps showing up, even when it costs you something.
Here’s what struck me. Your dog’s loyalty is instinctive - there’s no decision involved. But the love Jonathan is asking for, the hesed you and I are called to? That requires a choice. Often a costly one. Every single time.
And honestly, that’s where I quietly drift. Not dramatically. Just gradually - through tiredness, through disappointment, through the slow drift that happens when life gets complicated.
George Matheson, a 19th century Scottish hymn writer, put his finger on it. His “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” is a cry of wonder at a love that holds on not because we earn it, but because that’s simply what faithful love does.
Today’s small holy step is this: think of one person - a friendship that’s gone a bit quiet, someone from your church or family you haven’t shown up for lately - and send one message. A text. A card. A knock on the door.
That’s hesed in practice.
The full devotional - with a reflection question and a short closing prayer - is on YouTube now.
With you in this.
Rob
Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/when-clever-isnt-enough?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true