When is the last time you were tired?
I don’t mean you mowed the grass, sweated a little, and need a few minutes to regroup. I mean – just plain tired. Soul tired. Weary.
Think of that time.
Then, think about how respite came . . . what it felt like to be nurtured and loved back to peace.
Jesus was in the height of his ministry. “Tax collectors and sinners” were following him around and the religious people were infuriated. He knew they were grumbling, “This man welcomes immoral people and enjoys their company over a meal!”
So he told a story . . . and the story was about a reckless kind of love.
“Wouldn’t every single one of you, if you have 100 sheep and lose one leave the 99 in their grazing lands and go out searching for the lost sheep until you find it? When you find the lost sheep, wouldn’t you hoist it up on your shoulders, feeling wonderful? And when you go home, wouldn’t you call together your friends and neighbors? Wouldn’t you say, “Come on over and celebrate with me, because I’ve found my lost sheep?”
This story gives us a beautiful and amazing picture of what God’s love is like.
It is, as Cory Asbury sings, a “Reckless Love” of God.
God isn’t reckless but the way God loves is actually QUITE reckless.
In this story and in life, God is utterly unconcerned with the consequences of God’s actions with regard to God’s own safety, comfort, and well being.
In this story, Love doesn’t consider itself first.
Love doesn’t worry about gaining or losing when Love puts itself on the line.
And Love leaves the 99 to find the 1 EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Love isn’t cautious and Love gives itself away over and over and over again.
Love allows us back every single time.
This is how God loves us.
And the last time I checked, I’m relatively 100% certain it is how we are called to love.
Now is our time to show what reckless love looks like.
We have friends that are hurting and have reached a breaking point because of being judged by the color of their skin.
It’s real.
If you think it isn’t, I’d invite you to look again and perhaps ask some of your black friends what it is like to walk a few days in their shoes.
It’s time for us to live out the reckless love we have been so freely given.
Tired of talking about it? Hearing about it?
Our friends are tired of living being judged and made to feel lesser than because of skin color.
They deserve to have someone be willing to mirror the reckless love of the shepherd who went after the missing sheep.
They deserve to be carried to safety, love, and peace.
We are the shepherd.
There is no shadow you won’t light up,
mountain you won’t climb up, coming after me.
There is no wall you won’t kick down,
lie you won’t tear down coming after me.
It is the reckless love of God.
(Lyrics from Asbury’s song)
You are reading a Musing Meditation by Andrea Smith, Pastor, West Church, Lake Norman, Mooresville, NC.
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