Stick with the Stuck

The Lord calls His people to live lives that are characterized by a steadfast, loyal love. Today, R.C. Sproul illustrates this responsibility with a curious expression that a friend once shared with him.

What is it that the Lord requires of you? The answer that the prophet Micah delivers from the mouth of God is, “Here is what the Lord requires of you: to do justice—or righteousness—to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” And you think about it for a minute. If we could follow that abbreviated condensation, the crystallization of the essence of a godly life, it boils down to those three things: to do what is right, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God. Well, the second part of that injunction, “to love mercy,” is the word _hesed_. Here’s what God requires of you, Micah is saying, that you not only do what is right but that you manifest loving kindness, steadfast love—or what I’m calling here “loyal love.” I had a friend who was a seminary student of mine many years ago. He’s now been in the pastorate for several years. And he told me, he said that they have an expression in their family that they use quite frequently. And he said, “At our house we stick with the stuck.” I said: “Stick with the stuck? I never heard that expression. What does it mean to stick with the stuck?” And he said, “You know, we stick with the stuck.” I said: “No, I don’t know. What do you mean? ‘We stick with the stuck.’” And he said, “That means that in our family, we stick together no matter what.” That’s one of the beautiful things about the family unit. That where you’re involved in relationships, that it’s very hard to bail out of because you’re kin, because you’re family. You only have one mother in this world. You only have one father in your world. And it’s a great tragedy when that relationship is destroyed. And how great it would be for our country if everybody would adopt that motto in their homes, “We stick with the stuck.” That is an expression that communicates what Micah is talking about when he says we are to love mercy, that we should be steadfast and loyal in our love.