As I watch from a distance the United States becoming a huge
mess, I have very conflicting emotions. On the one hand, I long for God to open
eyes so that we remain the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
But on the other hand, I simply wait and pray. After all, it’s hard to see the Light when all
seems day.
So instead I pray for God’s true Church to come down as the
darkness closes in. No more cheap grace and Gospel show. No more divide and
conquer.
The Spirit is far from our pretty buildings and
well-coordinated programs and our endless checklists of do’s and don’ts.
We hop from bandwagon to bandwagon as they pass by with
their Scripture-laden banners flying high, announcing what is right and wrong.
All the while our feet never even touch the ground.
Because it’s messy down there with the lost and broken. And
we don’t even recognize that our bandwagon wheels are only making the mud
thicker.
Down there we will get dirty and our clothes will
get tattered. We will sweat and we will cry real tears. Our hands and feet will
get calloused.
But our hearts will grow softer. Our ears more in tuned to
listen. Our eyes focused to see.
Life off the bandwagon is lonely and exhausting because
pouring yourself out will require every ounce of you and more.
Loving unconditionally requires that we expect nothing in
return.
Nothing.
It means we get hurt. We may never see “results”. But we
keep loving.
And when the next bandwagon comes along (and come it will),
we will be tempted to hop on board for just a little rest. After all, many
times those banners wave truth.
But truth without love is useless. Our words without action
are meaningless.
So we remember our own frailties and brokenness before His
grace came down. We remember we were dead—DEAD—in our sins until His life
breathed fresh into our lungs.
Only by His sweet, sweet Grace.
So we stay in the mud and muck of this broken world and
whisper truths, not with our words but with our actions. We pray for eyes like
His. We pray for our lives to speak grace and mercy. We pray for hearts healed
and hope found.
We stop thinking it’s our job to save and condemn.
And it’s down here that we find we ourselves need to drink
deeply of the Living Water that sustains us in this barren place.
How good that this Spring never dries up! And on the hottest
of days and the darkest of nights, we realize He is found right here with us.
It is in that moment—our awareness of Him—we are no longer
afraid. We aren’t afraid to love with our whole being. We aren’t afraid of
what others will think or say when we walk with the broken—even those who have
yet to realize they have cracks and those who never come to the truth. We walk
beside them just the same.
We are no longer afraid of not seeing the “results” we long
for.
We trust Him so.
We will go as far as we can to show that this Love is real.
No news will shake us. No words will break us. Because we will physically ache
for those who have yet to see the Light. So much so that the only place we want
to be is right in the midst of the hard and ugly. Right beside the lost and
lonely.
So here is the invitation to come down. It is too hard to
hear the cries from up there anyway.
Live among the dead. Put your heart into action. No more shouting
truths. Just living Love in humility and gratitude to the One who healed our
own wounds.
God promises to handle the rest.
This is not a call to
giving in, as some would assume. I pray you hear my words. This is a call to
action. We have, as a whole, confused the volume of our voice with the deeds of
our hands. So often we are passively passionate about so many things. This
manifests itself in the form of social media posts and podium outcries, making
clear where we stand on issues. But it neglects to create humility and a love
that is moved to action. May we be “quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to
anger” as James admonishes. May we realize that “perfect love drives out fear”
as John tells us. This is not only fear of the future, but fear of the
“what-if”.
Loving the broken
doesn’t mean selling out or even condoning sin. Quite the contrary. Jesus tells
us, “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love
for one another.”
Let’s love loud
because in so doing, we will speak volumes.