Love Like That

I went and saw the Hillsong i-heart film. I'm still processing it all. There was just so much to take in. The realities of what so many people around the world face were once again brought home tonight. Violence, abuse, hunger, disease, slavery, loss, homelessness, death, war, constant danger...to name a few. When I look at the ridiculous scale of all the injustice in the world it makes me want to crawl in a hole and weep because I feel so helpless.

I feel angry too - a broken kind of angry. Where has the Church been while all these atrocities which break the heart of God have been going on day after day and year after year? More importantly, where have I been?

For too long now, the Church has been making big deals about small things and small deals of HUGE things which scream aloud for our attention. It makes me ill because I am guilty of this. There are children being sold into sex slavery, people starving to death, mothers who can't afford HIV/AIDS medicine for their babies, and people drinking filthy water because it's all they have. The least of these are begging for attention and what am I spending my time and energy on?

Where is my heart? Where is my focus? What are the things I am chasing after? Am I all about me? Am I about pleasing other people? Am I chasing after things that are not eternal?

Oh my...I want to be chasing after the One who has pursued me from the moment I took my first breath. The One who loves me fully. The One who longs for my life to collide with His purposes.

Isaiah 42:6 says "I chose you to bring justice, and I am here at your side. I selected and sent you to bring light and my promise of hope to the nations."

But HOW?? The need is so great and I am not!

In the film tonight Joel read the following scripture from Ephesians 5:1-2 in the Message version of the Bible. I love this translation of this particular verse. It says:

"Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that."

Let that soak in for a second. The answer to how we bring justice is to simply love. Not to SAY we love. But to actually love EXTRAVAGANTLY. Hold nothing back. Give all we are. Let go. Love like Jesus loves us - with no caution allowed.

I can catch a glimpse of what the world might look like if all of us who say we follow God would do just that - REALLY follow Him. Into the unknown. Into the pain. Into the Love that brings hope and freedom.

God, help me to love courageously, without regard for myself. Pour out your outrageous love into the lives of other people through me. Empty me of me. Thank you for continuing to pursue me. I love you for never stopping.