1836 confirmed deaths.
705 bodies never found.
175 mph winds.
$89 billion in ytd damages.
At least 3 countries greatly affected.
Category 5 label.
Katrina.
The costliest hurricane ever recorded. The sixth strongest winds. Top 5 deadliest ever. Katrina changed the face of an entire population. Millions of people lost their homes overnight. Some of them still have not returned. To say that Katrina had power to change things is an understatement. Lives. Geographical land. Mindsets. All of it changed in a rush of water. Powerful stuff -- those hurricanes.
I was chatting today with a student over Nantucket Strawberry-Watermelon juice from JP's Coffee. We were talking about love. Real love. Not just the between-a-man-and-woman kinda real love. But just simply real, unconditional love. What is unconditional love? This question made my mind go to a passage in Romans. I could remember the exact wording and what book it was in, but it took me a long time to find exactly where it was. I found it. Romans 5:8. "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I began to think about Christ's entire gospel. His purpose. What He did. What He said while He was here. I thought about the question: "Was the cross the only act of 'unconditional love' that He expressed?" Did He, by chance, live unconditional love every moment? Could this be why so many people were attracted to Him? Isaiah says that He had nothing that we would physically want. There must have been something else. Did He have a catchy personality? Was He flamboyant? Did He have this great radio voice that everyone wanted to listen to? Or did He just simply love people? To the point that everyone following Him around could just feel it coming from Him? Like the warmth you might feel from a room heater? Was His expression of life-love as influencing and powerful as a hurricane?
Hurricanes bring... Devastation. Loss. Pain. Uncertainty.
Love brings... Renewal. Restoration. Healing. Affirmation. Safety.
To compare the two is just absurd. But not if you think solely about impact. Many people would tell you that Jesus changed a lot of things. They would use words like "revolutionary." They would say He was the most important person to ever walk the earth. But why? I think maybe it was because he, in full confidence of who He was, swept in over land like Katrina. Even though we knew Katrina was coming, there was no stopping her power. Jesus we knew would come too. And not even Katrina's power could have matched the power of Jesus' unconditional love in the lives of those He walked with -- of those He is still walking with. Unconditional love might just be the only thing that can really change anything at all. Think about it. What if we all loved each other unconditionally (I know this is an idealistic idea but I am just posing the question)? What if it did not matter what she looked like? Or how he smelt? Or how she talks? What if it did not matter what he did to me? What she did to me? Would there be changing power in that? What would happen?
Every time I realize I am giving someone conditional love, eventually my mind heads back to that Romans passage. Nothing anyone has ever done to me could possibly come close to the things I have done to Him on a daily basis. And yet... and yet... He still died for me. And has given His Spirit to continue walking with me.
We make so much of love nowadays. You see the word all the time. Everywhere. We use it to describe intensely something that we like. We use it to describe two people having sex. We use it along with food-chain slogans. And exclaiming to someone: "I do not love you anymore," might just be the worst thing that person ever remembers hearing. We hear people say things like: "Why can't we all just love each other?" People go to church and leave with a "Love Wins" sticker on their bumper. I think Satan loves how much we use the word. The more meanings we attribute to it, the less we understand the real meaning. Perhaps 1 Corinthians 13 can help clear a few things up.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not proud.
Love is not rude.
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil.
Love rejoices with truth.
Love always protects.
Love always trusts.
Love always hopes.
Love always perseveres.
Love never fails.
If we broke down unconditional love into all of its parts, this is what we would get. This is Jesus -- in 16 acts. Replace the word "love" with Jesus and it always works perfectly. Replace the word "love" with Nat and things get bumpy really fast.
Here is another passage that comes to mind. 1 John 3:16. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." If this laying our lives down is to really be love, there are no conditions for who "our brothers" really are. I know for me whenever I read this passage and get to those last two words, my mind immediately goes to all the people I know who I would willingly die for (and not just literally dying for, but putting aside my own wants and desires). My mind automatically categorizes out all those people who I would rather not love like this. I can think of a few right now.
Lets travel back to that original passage in Romans. Here is what the verse ahead of verse 8 says: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die." As much as verse 8 is a reflection of Christ, so verse 7 is a reflection of me. For a person I deem good, I might lay myself aside. But Christ, in this insane unconditional-love stuff, died for man while they were doing every kind of evil thing against Him. And we call Him a "revolutionary." I say He changed a lot of things. Hmmmm....
Imagine if we sought His definition of love? Just think about the implications. We will never totally get it right. But just think if we started asking God for strength to live out those 16 definitions? What if I started asking God for this strength?
There is no doubt that the quality of love with which Jesus showed was unlike anything anyone had ever seen walking the streets of a human city. As John 1:14 reads in The Message, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son." Do not quickly move from those words. Read them again with your eyes. Close your eyes and picture the scene with your heart. He did not make sense. That is why it was so hard for so many people during Jesus' time to believe He was who He said He was. That is why it is still just as hard. If those who could see Him with their own eyes had trouble believing. How much more today? But... He was... simply put... the man-flesh expression of God's UnconditionalHurricaneLove.
Oh, to have UnconditionalHurricaneLove.
705 bodies never found.
175 mph winds.
$89 billion in ytd damages.
At least 3 countries greatly affected.
Category 5 label.
Katrina.
The costliest hurricane ever recorded. The sixth strongest winds. Top 5 deadliest ever. Katrina changed the face of an entire population. Millions of people lost their homes overnight. Some of them still have not returned. To say that Katrina had power to change things is an understatement. Lives. Geographical land. Mindsets. All of it changed in a rush of water. Powerful stuff -- those hurricanes.
I was chatting today with a student over Nantucket Strawberry-Watermelon juice from JP's Coffee. We were talking about love. Real love. Not just the between-a-man-and-woman kinda real love. But just simply real, unconditional love. What is unconditional love? This question made my mind go to a passage in Romans. I could remember the exact wording and what book it was in, but it took me a long time to find exactly where it was. I found it. Romans 5:8. "But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." I began to think about Christ's entire gospel. His purpose. What He did. What He said while He was here. I thought about the question: "Was the cross the only act of 'unconditional love' that He expressed?" Did He, by chance, live unconditional love every moment? Could this be why so many people were attracted to Him? Isaiah says that He had nothing that we would physically want. There must have been something else. Did He have a catchy personality? Was He flamboyant? Did He have this great radio voice that everyone wanted to listen to? Or did He just simply love people? To the point that everyone following Him around could just feel it coming from Him? Like the warmth you might feel from a room heater? Was His expression of life-love as influencing and powerful as a hurricane?
Hurricanes bring... Devastation. Loss. Pain. Uncertainty.
Love brings... Renewal. Restoration. Healing. Affirmation. Safety.
To compare the two is just absurd. But not if you think solely about impact. Many people would tell you that Jesus changed a lot of things. They would use words like "revolutionary." They would say He was the most important person to ever walk the earth. But why? I think maybe it was because he, in full confidence of who He was, swept in over land like Katrina. Even though we knew Katrina was coming, there was no stopping her power. Jesus we knew would come too. And not even Katrina's power could have matched the power of Jesus' unconditional love in the lives of those He walked with -- of those He is still walking with. Unconditional love might just be the only thing that can really change anything at all. Think about it. What if we all loved each other unconditionally (I know this is an idealistic idea but I am just posing the question)? What if it did not matter what she looked like? Or how he smelt? Or how she talks? What if it did not matter what he did to me? What she did to me? Would there be changing power in that? What would happen?
Every time I realize I am giving someone conditional love, eventually my mind heads back to that Romans passage. Nothing anyone has ever done to me could possibly come close to the things I have done to Him on a daily basis. And yet... and yet... He still died for me. And has given His Spirit to continue walking with me.
We make so much of love nowadays. You see the word all the time. Everywhere. We use it to describe intensely something that we like. We use it to describe two people having sex. We use it along with food-chain slogans. And exclaiming to someone: "I do not love you anymore," might just be the worst thing that person ever remembers hearing. We hear people say things like: "Why can't we all just love each other?" People go to church and leave with a "Love Wins" sticker on their bumper. I think Satan loves how much we use the word. The more meanings we attribute to it, the less we understand the real meaning. Perhaps 1 Corinthians 13 can help clear a few things up.
Love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love does not envy.
Love does not boast.
Love is not proud.
Love is not rude.
Love is not self-seeking.
Love is not easily angered.
Love keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil.
Love rejoices with truth.
Love always protects.
Love always trusts.
Love always hopes.
Love always perseveres.
Love never fails.
If we broke down unconditional love into all of its parts, this is what we would get. This is Jesus -- in 16 acts. Replace the word "love" with Jesus and it always works perfectly. Replace the word "love" with Nat and things get bumpy really fast.
Here is another passage that comes to mind. 1 John 3:16. "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." If this laying our lives down is to really be love, there are no conditions for who "our brothers" really are. I know for me whenever I read this passage and get to those last two words, my mind immediately goes to all the people I know who I would willingly die for (and not just literally dying for, but putting aside my own wants and desires). My mind automatically categorizes out all those people who I would rather not love like this. I can think of a few right now.
Lets travel back to that original passage in Romans. Here is what the verse ahead of verse 8 says: "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die." As much as verse 8 is a reflection of Christ, so verse 7 is a reflection of me. For a person I deem good, I might lay myself aside. But Christ, in this insane unconditional-love stuff, died for man while they were doing every kind of evil thing against Him. And we call Him a "revolutionary." I say He changed a lot of things. Hmmmm....
Imagine if we sought His definition of love? Just think about the implications. We will never totally get it right. But just think if we started asking God for strength to live out those 16 definitions? What if I started asking God for this strength?
There is no doubt that the quality of love with which Jesus showed was unlike anything anyone had ever seen walking the streets of a human city. As John 1:14 reads in The Message, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son." Do not quickly move from those words. Read them again with your eyes. Close your eyes and picture the scene with your heart. He did not make sense. That is why it was so hard for so many people during Jesus' time to believe He was who He said He was. That is why it is still just as hard. If those who could see Him with their own eyes had trouble believing. How much more today? But... He was... simply put... the man-flesh expression of God's UnconditionalHurricaneLove.
Oh, to have UnconditionalHurricaneLove.
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