Intimidated by Your Love

I don’t think I have shared with you yet my deep appreciation for Bethany Dillon songs. It seems that every time I listen to them, they either pierce my soul with conviction or put my deepest thoughts into words. She just seems to know how to say what I really need to hear or how to express how I truly feel.

I have been thinking a lot about how my concept of LOVE is far, very far, from God’s concept of this mysterious force that emboldens mothers to desire to take their children’s place in pain, that moves a man and a woman to seek to give up their differences, and that motivated a holy God to sacrifice His own Son for a selfish world lost in darkness, suffering, and shame. To me, love doesn’t happen unless it is shared, becomes a strong mutual feeling, or isn’t reality until it is recognized and embraced by all the involved parties. How many times am I moved to love someone because I can see accompanying benefits or a promise of returned love?

This may be a very human perception of love –but oh how inaccurate is it! We have so perverted and stained our concept of love that we can no longer recognize it when it is there, present, and at work…and fail to even grasp a glimpse of God’s powerful, UNCONDITIONAL love for us. Because that’s what true LOVE is –it is unconditional.

The Bible speaks of this love on many occasions. I John 4:19 states that God loved us way before we even thought about loving Him. James 4:6-10 and Jeremiah 29 distinctively relate the idea that long before we decided to grab His hand, it was outstretched towards us, simply waiting for us to call upon His love and claim it our own. God loves unconditionally –and He never stops loving us, even when we think He does due to our human, small conception of love. One of my favorite Bethany Dillon songs “So Close” alludes to this idea: for a major part of the song, Bethany talks about how easily we fall into sin, into prideful negligence of His Word, and into a feeling of distance between the Lord and us. However, she concludes her song with a powerful truth: He never once turned His heart away, even when we felt so far away. He was always “so close.” We are the ones with wandering hearts; but HE is always so close, even when we feel so far away from Him. Now that’s love.

So what now? What must we –I –do about this love? I want to challenge us –I want to challenge me! –to truly LOVE…love through a transformed mind (Romans 12:2): love boldly, love humbly, love sacrificially, love fearlessly, love unconditionally, love without expecting anything in return…Love the LORD with all your heart, mind, and soul…and love others as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40).