WE DON'T NEED A REASON

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We keep running. Running from things we are too scared to face and running from the way our words spill into the air- they never seem quite right. We chase after light, but hold the shadows inside of us. We run from fears and failure, and yet leave behind the joy as well.We run after perfection and expect it from everyone, but slowly forget that we have all fallen- somewhere. We hide away our feelings and wonder why nobody ever notices, but in truth we have buried them too deep. Yet what colors our names the most and clouds the mind of a watching world is the way we run away from the people that need us the most.

For the last couple days, Jesus has been wrecking my heart with a flooding of His love and a picture of what it does for the heart and what we are supposed to do with it. It's a drowning, but the kind where you find peace and rest just when your lungs are about to burst. It has completely rocked my world and I stand utterly amazed as His love shines through all my depravity like sun rays on a cloudy day. 

Love. The kind that took the hand of the woman that committed adultery and showed her grace when the law spoke condemnation. She was not worthy, but are we? The kind of love that gives without expecting anything in return- no conditions. The kind of love that sat with the sinners and gave Matthew another chance. The love that Paul had when he said, "I would gladly spend and be spent for your souls, but the more I love you the less I am loved." There are no worthy people in this realm of things- no one deserving. We have such a clear picture- Jesus, such a simple and practical theme of reaching out, but that is the problem- it is so practical most of us miss it. 

The way I see it, the core and center of Christianity is love. Love for God and for the people He has made- everyone. It is like we only want to be around Christian circles and communities because sinners scare us and make us uncomfortable so we don't go near them. How are we supposed to reach them then? Yes, we are supposed to love the church and lay down our lives every day for our family in Christ, but we also have a responsibility toward the dying. I hear it over and over again, "they are a bad influence." "I do not want to have to be around people like that." or, "those people are really messed up." That breaks my heart. I have had that said to me and I have been judged for the way I look on the outside and let me tell you straight out- it sucks. How do the unbelievers see our God when we push them under our feet and refuse to see them or help because we are scared and judgmental of them? If our Christian walk is not strong enough to be able to be in the world and yet not a part of it- then something very serious is wrong.

It is like we have started looking around us and first checking to see if the person is worthy of being loved. Yet what if Jesus had done that to us? I cannot shake the conviction that being a Christian means going into the places most people will not- reaching for the ones that everyone has called off as too far gone for redemption. Nothing and no one is beyond the grasp of Grace. Mostly, I do not think we need a reason to love someone. We may hate the sin they are in, but we love them with all the love He has given us, and somehow, I am sure that love can crack open the bitter and hurting hearts of our world. 

Love looks beyond the sin- the outward. Love looks deeper. Love says: "I choose you despite the things you have done." Love fights battles that bitterness and judgement can never hope to win. Love picks up the broken pieces even if it means getting bruises and cuts. Love does not need a reason. Love reaches for the sinner and prays for the cleansing of sin. Love does not push aside and condemn for different beliefs or the lack of them. Love is conviction. Love is hope.

"...let us not love in word or in tongue, 

but in deed and in truth." -1 John 3:16