God is absolutely crazy about us. And one of the greatest demonstrations of that crazy love is God's reckless grace.
In meeting with my men's group a few weeks ago we talked about the concept of bold, daring, reckless grace. The bold and daring part we got. The reckless part, no so much. I noticed the same challenge in some of my other groups. Reckless seems to imply sloppy, careless, diving in without thinking, etc. But reckless really means to act without thinking or caring about the consequences.
Hang with me on this because God obviously cares about the consequences of his love--he wants to draw us into a relationship. But God's expression of that grace threw caution to the wind. It was and is unconventional. God treated his reputation carelessly, for example, when he decided to reach out to sinners with such passionate, amazing love, forgiveness, and acceptance.
Laying aside one's rights and privileges as God in order to become a servant (Philippians 2) is reckless. The creator entering creation to suffer and die for it is reckless. Forgiving one's enemies from the cross is reckless. Hanging out with the outcasts of society and calling them friends is reckless. Using ordinary fishermen to share the Gospel with the world is reckless. Inviting graced people to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them is reckless.
God doesn't care whom he loves. No one is beyond his love. He's so crazy about us he does reckless things to win our hearts.
Grace is not just safe and comforting and freeing. It's reckless, passionate, and transforming.
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3 comments:
I hope this is the beginning of a new book...You are really on to something!! Stay Reckless my brother!
I appreciate the encouragement. I didn't start out thinking about a book...We'll see where the conversation takes us.
My wife and I experienced reckless grace this spring. We committed to cleaning out my mother's house and getting it ready for sale.
The reckless part was that we only had 3 weeks to do all the things we needed to do in order to make it happen. We had no rational plan for how to do this - we just stepped out in faith and service.
By mid May, it was done ... which included sorting through 50 years of accumulated records and possesions, repainting the main floor interior, taking care of deferred maintenance, cleaning up an overgrown large lot and the removal of 230 cubic yards of trash.
We were amazed by the wonderful people who became available to make it all came together.
It was truly a faith-building experience!
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