Simply Nothing

A few people lately have mentioned to me I need to update my blog...so here I am! I was thinking of things that were on my heart, and while I was gardening the other day I had this AMAZING song stuck in my head...it was "Simply Nothing" by Shawn McDonald. It goes a little something like this:

"So hard to fathom the pain in Your eyes
As You're watching Your children doing what You despise

In pursuit of our own we just go 'round and 'round

Another nail to our cause we continue to pound

What are you, man, if you do not learn love?

What are you, man, if you do not learn love?

So hard to fathom, oh the feelings inside

As You're watching Your people choosing to die

You called out a warningto all that would hear

Saying 'Come to Me, and I will draw near'

What are you, man, if you do not learn love?
What are you, man, if you do not learn love?"

Obviously the answer is, Simply NOTHING. But the not-so-obvious thing is the question that the world has been trying to answer for ages. What IS love? Well considering this is Good Friday, I would say that Love is a very important factor in Jesus' life-giving act. His unconditional love is, some might say, impossible for us to learn perfectly because we are "only human". But as we are made in the image of God, we are to reflect that love that we were designed for.

I am currently re-reading an incredible book called "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. Pretty self-explanatory as to what it is about, but it brought something to light about love that I had never thought of before. Society has given us its own distorted perspective of love. "Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is handing someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees." He says, "Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not 'best for us'. It is in fact a lethal distraction...."

Isn't that hard? We all love to hear that someone loves us...and when someone tells us that, what's so hard about love? What's to learn?...The fact is, love is not making much of someone, or even making much of someone else. Think of this: God is the ultimate standard of love. Only imagine the UNCONDITIONAL love that occurred at the cross!! Jesus took on ALL the sin of the world. Picture this: God can not look at sin. So while His Son was suffering in pure agony on the cross, God could not even look at His own Son! Yet while He was in this extreme pain, did God "love" Him (in the definition of the world) take away His pain and help give Him the easy road? NO! He knew what the best was for the world, for our salvation. That just blows me away, that He could bear to just let Him suffer...yet that is love?

What are you, man, if you do not learn LOVE?

Thank you Lord for your unconditional love. For your undying faithfulness, despite my own unfaithfulness. Thank you for your unmerited favor, your supreme goodness and perfection despite my own fatal flaws. You are my Lover and my Beloved.