What Love Looks Like

I've said it many a time before, but after another long hiatus, I think that I hath returned to regular blogging. Welcome back.

I'm in Atlanta at the Catalyst Leadership Conference. It is a massive conference (like 13,000 people) for leaders in the church, which I oddly, had never even heard of before this year. It is really great, and I'm hearing a lot of stuff that I hadn't expected - great stuff.

Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot sang a song for the conference with just an acoustic guitar and a cello player. He introduced the song by saying that he has the hardest time writing songs about God and girls. This was one of the former, and he said that he cheated by "stealing" words from the Bible.

The song ended up being from one of my favorite passages, one that is always relevant to what ever is going on in life at the time - do not worry. God has it figured out.

Here were the lyrics:

Heavenly Father
You always amaze me
Let Your kingdom come in my world
And in my life

Give me the food I need
To live through today
Forgive me as I forgive
The people that wrong me

Lead me far from temptation
Deliver me from the evil one

I look out the window
The birds are composing
Not a note is out of tune
Or out of place

I walk to the meadow
And stare at the flowers
Better dressed than any girl
On her wedding day

So why should I worry?
Why do I freak out?
God knows what I need
You know what I need!

Your love is
Your love is
Your love is strong

The kingdom of the heavens
Is now advancing
Invade my heart
Invade this broken town

The kingdom of the heavens
Is buried treasure
Would you sell yourself
To buy the one you've found

Two things you told me
That you are strong
And you love me
Yes, you love me

Your love is
Your love is
Your love is strong
Your love is
Your love is
Your love is strong

Our God in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Above all names
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven
Give us, today, our daily bread
Forgive us weary sinners
Keep us far from our vices
And deliver us from these prisons

I was really surprised at how simple and helpful the song was, taking a familiar passage and mixing it with the passage that is the Lord's Prayer, but reworking them, so that I could hear it in a new way. It has made me think of how much we are loved by God, but how little we allow ourselves to see it.

That doesn't stop it from being there.

Instead, though, we are often distracted by the hurt and the pain all around us - the pain of the world and of ourselves.
In its ugliest manifestation, it can look like what is in this trailer, which we also saw at the conference today:

http://callandresponse.com/

This movie addresses a serious issue in the world that Adrien and I have gotten more and more concerned with in the recent months (Adrien really educating me on it).

This movie, and the people that are in it are a visible sign of God's love. We can't ignore the suffering that we see in this movie because we are created to care. God loves these children, and the anger that we feel at the thought of that suffering is God using us to bring about change. There is nothing that we gain from helping these children, yet we are compelled to care. Why is that?

The most logical answer is "Because it's the right thing to do."
But why do we feel like that is right? What gives us that certainty? Is there not some larger compulsion that we have as humans to care for the defenseless, to not sit idly by when people are suffering? Is it ridiculous to think that God is working through you in that way, that the anger that an issue like human trafficking makes each of us feel is a reflection of God's love, a love that hates human suffering?

God's love won't let us be okay with that...

Okay, rather than comment too much more on this right now, as I have said a lot for a "relaunch" of me bloggin', I'll reiterate what Dr. Cornell West says in the trailer:

Never forget that JUSTICE is what LOVE looks like in public!

think.