THE LOVE WE DESERVE

“What is love? Baby don’t hurt me … don’t hurt me .. no more….”

This line from a famous song expresses a sentiment which we’re all familiar with. But if you put on the pause-button for a moment, there’s an obvious question here—if love is so good, how can it bring pain? It seems to me that if we-humans want to revere love so much, it probably shouldn’t be so painful. Yet, the lament of so many love songs reflects the agony of heartache. It’s obvious that in the earnest pursuit of love, it’s easy to make mistakes along the way. This brings even more pain. I just cannot see how love and pain can co-exist without a deeper look.

In the short move clip above, that memorable line, “we accept the love we think we deserve” really stands out. It jumped off the screen at me when I first watched this film. From the human perspective, I can see the enormous truth in this statement. That’s probably why the divorce rate is so high in our society. We pursue love, but often fail. Pain is the result.

For just a moment, I’d like to turn this around and look at it from God’s perspective. Because of what Christ did for our sins, I think God may ask us to “accept the love we DON’T deserve.” That, my friends, is the nature of grace. There’s no way we can justify how God can save us through grace. But He does. Scripture is abundantly clear on this. 

As I’m often known to do, I like to take worldly statements and turn them around to see if God’s truth exists. So my question to you is this … are you trying to earn God’s love through your actions? If so, please consider that God’s love is far greater than ours. You can’t earn His love, but you can embrace His sacrificial love through the saving grace of Jesus Christ. 

You don’t deserve God’s love and neither do I. That’s the whole point. So don’t try to accept a false love from God where earning it is what you have to do. His love is not a merit-based system. The truth is, none of us can help enough old ladies across the street to earn God’s love. His love is so gigantic and unimaginable, it’s simply beyond our limited human comprehension.  

It just is. I’m sure glad of that. 

Have a great week!