All you need is love

"Love slays what we have been that we may be what we were not." St. Augustine

I tend to agree with the Beatles, God is love. He's all i need. So for intro to ministry we have been reading this book called "Love Beyond Reason." It's actually a really good book, but for me there is just one big problem with it...it requires reading. I never have been much of a reader, okay I've probably finished like a book and a half in my life, but what evs. But this book really has a lot of good things to say and i want to share some of them and what they made me think about. So the book is obviously about the many forms and aspects of love. The author, John Ortberg, talks about rag dolls. He begins with a story of his sister's rag doll and the unconditional love she had for it. How it had started beautiful. Flawless "skin" and clothes. As the years went on the doll became much more ragged and to the outsider it looked grotesque but his sister's love for the doll never faded. Well obviously Ortberg tied this to the love God has for us. We were created perfect. We sinned. Now we are rag dolls. Every one of us is ragged in our own right. But God loves us still. Here's what I got, God doesn't just love us "in spite of" what we do wrong. He loves us because he wants to.

"God likes to love you." Ortberg.

That's humbling. I think i've been through this before but why would the creator want to love me. Before Jesus healed the leper, the man said to him "If you choose, you can make me clean." but when the father of a possessed girl came to Jesus he said "If you can..." The leper only doubted whether Jesus would want to heal him not if he could. Good news...he does want to heal you. You may not be a leper but you have problems. And not only can God heal you, He wants to.

"It may be a very bad thing that I needed God to die for me, but it is a wonderful thing that God thinks i'm woth dying for."

Wow. so, now we get that part. Here's the doosy. We aren't just ragged, that's not everything we are. We are also called to be holy. Guess what that means...we are called to love the rest of the rag dolls. Ortberg went on to talk about how no one has seen like Jesus saw. That is my wish...to see through his eyes. Brandon Heath has a song out called "Give me your eyes." Listen to it. The lepers, the prostitutes, beggers, tax collectors. He saw them while they were invisible to society. And he touched all of them. literally. Christ could have looked at them and healed them but because he cared so much for them he touched them to do it. Heal the flesh, heal the soul. So, as Benji was talking about on sunday, we have to give all of ourselves to others. Die to self. (no that's not getting old and it never will) Jesus never looked down his nose at anyone. No matter their position in life he saw them all as children of his father. How many times have you casually shunned someone even today because of their iniquities or simple differences?

I want to give you one more story from the book. There was an 8 yr old boy who's sister had leukemia and would die without a blood transfusion. The parents didn't match so they asked their son if he'd give a pint of his blood. He told them he'd think about it overnight. The next day he told his parents he'd do it. So, they hooked the children up and transfered the blood and as the boy lay there and the doctor came in he opened his eyes. The boy asked the doctor "How long until I start to die?"

"Love is never so fully love as when it gives." Ortberg

Give all of yourself. Not just for the sake of loving God but for the sake of loving everyone else through Him.