So I’ve been getting this question a lot: “Why pay so much to go overseas when you can serve LOCALLY?” or “Why are you doing THE race? and not something like The Peace Corps?” I’ve always tried to just explain my own deep longing for missions and my passion for the world, but I’ve never thought that really answered anyone’s actual underlying question. Then yesterday at church, JP, our young adults pastor, did a sermon on: Life’s too Short not to LOVE. It got me thinking about what love really is and thus got me thinking on the WHY of the world race. (side note: $14,000 to live off of for a year is not really that much. Think about it: most of us make $14,000 in less than 6 months!)
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions
and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”
*1 John 3:16-18*
I’m reading a book called Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski. It is a first-hand account of two college-aged guys who CHOSE to live on the streets in five different big cities for five months with the homeless, to become one of the needy and to truly understand the prayer “Thy will be done.” God was enough to sustain them. In the book Mike says:
“Why
do we reject the loving, self-sacrificing, giving, encouraging,
Jesus-pursuing drug addict but recruit the clean, self-interested,
gossiping, loveless churchgoer? Which one do you suppose Jesus would
rather share a burrito with under a bridge?…. we are ALL beggars at the
foot of the cross, broken people in need of mending.”
do we reject the loving, self-sacrificing, giving, encouraging,
Jesus-pursuing drug addict but recruit the clean, self-interested,
gossiping, loveless churchgoer? Which one do you suppose Jesus would
rather share a burrito with under a bridge?…. we are ALL beggars at the
foot of the cross, broken people in need of mending.”
We ALL are so undeserving of God’s love. no matter our circumstance in life, where we live, who we marry, how much money we make, what we look like. We all are in need of healing, we are all in need of a Savior. WE ARE ALL IN NEED OF HIS LOVE.
God’s love is unique.
God’s love is like no other.
God’s love is sacrificial.
God’s love is perfect.
God’s love is unfair.
JP had mentioned that where you go when you die: heaven or hell, is determined by ONE basic understanding. The understanding of God’s love for us. That His love is so unfair because we DON’T deserve it. But in His grace and mercy He gives it FREELY to EVERYONE. He used a great example of a sunburn: You get a sunburn because the sun is heat. it radiates heat. a sunburn is noticeable to everyone who can see your bright red skin. Your skin is physically changed. This is just like God’s love: God IS love, and it is perfected. He radiates love onto us who understand it, though Christ’s death. We are to not only understand His love, but to be physically changed by His love so that others notice His truth. We are His evidence of love. We are to be God VISIBLE here on earth until we are with Him for eternity.
Why is it unfair love? because we will NEVER be able to deserve His love. There is nothing we can do. Romans 5:8 says: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is how we should love, giving freely, not expecting anything in return to everyone who comes across our path. He doesn’t love fairly, so why should we? If we have God’s love, we MUST give it. How could you not want to share it? It is His greatest commandment: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” -John 15:12-13
This is why I am doing the race. To spread HIS LOVE to everyone. To those lost, untouched, undeserving, underprivileged and in need of a Savior just like me. This is not a radical decision. This is Biblical. There is nothing ‘crazy’ about doing this. It is what He is calling me to do and until I leave in July I will be spreading His love here in Dallas. And once I get back from the race I will still be living my life spreading HIS love. I don’t see the race as I’m ‘giving up’ my job or that I’m losing my possessions or even as a risk to my safety and life. What if Jesus had said no to God because He didn’t want to loose His life? wow, imagine! We wouldn’t be able to talk to God or even know Him. all.we.need.is.LOVE.
*******
Lord, I pray that daily, no matter where I am: in Dallas or in Haiti or in China, that You continue to wreck me, You continue to refresh me and amaze me with Your love for me. Change me daily. Allow me to die trying to love like You have loved me, even though I know that is an impossible task for me to accomplish. Continue to saturate me with the goodness of who You are so that I can spread it onto others.
*******
JP left us with this video as the best earthly example he could think of to show what God’s love for us looks like. I’ll forewarn you all, it is a tearjerker!!
Also I highly recommend listening to his sermon called “Life’s too Short not to Love” here: http://www.watermarkradio.com/
