This is the thought that has consumed my mind lately. It is tainting every bit of my thinking. It is altering my view of the world around me. It is forcing me to see people with different eyes, eyes that are not my own. I am really attempting to step outside of myself and see the world from the perspective of Jesus. Now, I am typically able to view a situation from the perspective of an outsider and put myself in someone else's shoes in order to grasp some understanding of why they would respond a particular way, regardless of whether or not I agree with their response. However, I am learning more and more that I don't know what to do with a love like Jesus'. David Crowder Band has a song that says, "And the problem it seems is with you and me, not the Love who came to repair everything. And I don't know what to do with a love like that. And I don't know how to be a love like that." I have mulled over these lyrics while driving, while showering, and while lying in bed at night (the places I do my best thinking), and I have realized that it is true. I don't know what to do with this kind of love. I need it. I want it. But I have a hard time getting a hold on it. I want to be it. I need to be it. But I am not. This love came to repair everything, EVERYTHING. Love came to bandage the wounded. Love came to smile for the toothless. Love came to speak for the silent. Love came to shed light on the darkness. This love is something I have been trying to understand and be, but it seems as though every time I make a stride, the road before me once again extends beyond what my eyes can ascertain. I suppose that is the point, though, really. God is so much greater than we, as simple men and women, will ever comprehend, and for that I am extremely grateful. I would not want a god that I could understand because that means his greatness is limited to this earth, to the simplicity of things my mind can grasp. I suppose I am glad that the road of love has so many twists and turns and questions without black-and-white answers. Yes, that's right, I do not think love is always black and white.
Now, don't get your panties in a bunch, but I am about to get controversial...
Allow me to preface by saying that I am an advocate of life--all lives, all people. I am also an advocate of equal value for all, which is to say that in the eyes of God every individual is equal in value, regardless of his/her age, race, nationality, occupation, gender, ability/disability, et cetera. This being said, I have a hard time with some traditionally "Christian" stances on some typically debated topics. One of these troubling topics for me is the legalization of abortion. Do I want babies to be aborted? No. That is not the question for me. My problem is related to the way Christians express their displeasure in abortion. It seems to me that in America we often want our government to make laws that allow us to mitigate our responsibility as Christians. I have a hard time with Christians who continually petition for the rights of the unborn without ever acknowledging the plight of woman who feels as though she has no option but to abort her child. Yes, I think the unborn have a right to live a full life, but I also believe that the born should live a full life as well. Maybe our energies would be better spent reaching out to the people we see on a daily basis who don't know Jesus rather than petitioning our government to feel guilty about murdering unborn children. But hey, what do I know? All that I am really sure of is that love wins...
"This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." John 15:12
