I read a statement last week that continues to echo in the chambers of my heart, a statement that could change my life...and yours. A statement that seems so out of touch with current Christian culture that you will probably read it with skepticism. Ready? Here it is:
God loves loving you.
Go back and read it again. I'm pretty sure it didn't make the journey from your brain to your heart in the milliseconds it took you to read it. Stop. Now. Read it again. Slowly.
God loves loving you.
Now stop reading this blog right now and let those words marinate on your heart for just 30 seconds--the length of one commercial. Go ahead. Do it. I'll wait for you to come back.
So was I right? Did you meet this statement with skepticism? Did you say something like, "of course God loves me. He loves everyone." Or, "God is love, so He must love me." (Notice the obligation in that statement.) Maybe you even thought to yourself, "How could God love loving me? I'm nothing to love in the first place."
How do I know you were skeptical? How do I know you've been doing mental gymnastics in your brain trying to justify why that statement could NOT be true about you? Because I'm a fellow gymnast in that land of intellectualism.
You and I are missing the point. The statement didn't say God loves you. It says God loves loving you. In our culture in which everything is explained away by a rational understanding, this statement flies in the face of everything that makes sense. God shouldn't love us, but He does. And loving us shouldn't be a joy, but it is. God shouldn't seek us out to demonstrate His love daily, but He does. It's just that most of the time, I miss it. I'm too busy in my rational, explainable, all my ducks-are-in-a-row world. And so when a stranger smiles at me, I'm wondering what she sees on my face to make her smile (do I have a booger? do I have spinach in my teeth? is my slip stuck up in my skirt?) rather than thinking that simple smile was a word from Heaven to remind me of Love incarnate. When my daughter laughs, I forget that God enjoys hearing me laugh. It couldn't be from God because God really doesn't have the time or energy or desire to speak to me on such a personal, private, meaningful level.
And if you're honest, you'd admit you have felt the same way. Sure, you'd admit that God loves you...that's a propositional truth that's easy to believe intellectually. But you are slow to even voice outloud the idea that God loves YOU. Personally. Passionately. In pursuit. Actively. All the time. It's even more difficult to stake your heart on it. Too much is riding on the line. If it's not true, then your heart would break beyond repair.
What would happen in your life if you believed, to the very marrow of your soul, that God loves loving you? That He intentionally looks for ways to demonstrate that love? What would happen in your girls' ministry if the girls began to grasp that truth? Began to actually BELIEVE that truth?
Let it settle into your soul for a while. And maybe you'll find out.
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