Welcome to the Jada Edwards podcast. For the next three episodes, we're going to do a short series on what it means to really love biblically, authentically, and intelligently. I call it the Lovewell Project. Here is part three. So now we have arrived. We are here at part three. We have talked a little bit about what it means to love well by loving smart, understanding people, understanding self, seeking understanding of God, what it means to love free. And that is really processing how we remove conditions from our relationships and how we remove expectations of our relationship

with God, you know, forgiveness. So many things come with loving free. And all of that kind of culminates

to this particular idea of loving close. What does it mean to love close? If I'm going to love well,

I have to love close or closely. And when I think about

this, I'm taken immediately to this image of Jesus in the Garden of Githemone. And here you have a man,

even though he was fully God, just the human part of him facing the heaviest moment of his time on earth. He knows that Calvary is looming. And even

though his heart is willing and obedient, everything in his humanity is asking the father if there's

another way for this mission to be accomplished. And in this very vulnerable place, he brings in three of his closest

disciples. And he just asked them, can you sit with me while I pray? He didn't ask them for anything

that seems unreasonable, but they failed. They fell asleep. And the fascinating part of this story, aside from all the weight it has on giving us insight into the life of Christ, it gives us insight into how Christ pursued community.

A man who was fully God, was deity deity himself and his humanity pursued community.

And you see that because when they fall asleep, Jesus does the illogical, unpredictable thing.

The predictable thing, the logical thing would say, I'm unfriending you, I'm blocking you from

my garden, get out, pretend we didn't know each other. I cannot believe you failed me. You are

horrible. You need to go and search your soul for why you have failed me as a human and maybe I'll

just be distraught and lonely, but you got to go.

But he does the unpredictable thing, the illogical thing, and he says, let's try again.

Stay.

He does not rescind the invitation.

He says, stay.

Stay in this very personal space and let's try again.

He goes again to pray and he, a second time finds them falling asleep or

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