My Song is Love Unknown

My song is love unknown,
my Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown
that they might lovely be.
O who am I that for my sake
my Lord should take
frail flesh and die?

"My Song is Love Unknown"

by Samuel Crossman, 1664

If there is one event on earth and in heaven that shows us the risk in loving someone, it's the sacrifice of the Son of God. Jesus sacrificed more than breath and a heartbeat for the perfect love He has for us. He bent down from His throne in heaven and took on our sins, our weaknesses, and the resulting wrath of God the Father only to be rejected, disbelieved, betrayed, ridiculed, and hated unto death. He suffered for far longer than one infamous Friday.

Many of us have lost mothers and fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, friends, and children to sickness, sin, and death. Would you take back all the joyful love you felt when they were alive so you could avoid the painful love you feel today? Jesus didn't. Jesus knew what loving us would mean: His suffering and death on our behalf, but He loves us anyway. As you cry those bitter tears of love-caused broken hearts, thank God for His promise to one day make your life as eternal as your love.

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends..."

1 Corinthians 13:7-8

I regret the recording above, though beautiful, does not have the hymn in its entirety, so I've included the complete text below. The omitted verses are in bold. For more on love, click here.

"My Song is Love Unknown"

by Samuel Crossman, 1664

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My song is love unknown,

my Savior’s love to me.

Love to the loveless shown,

That they might lovely be.

O, who am I! That for my sake

my Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne

salvation to bestow.

But men made strange, and none

the longed for Christ would know.

But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,

who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,

and His sweet praises sing,

resounding all the day

Hosannas to their King.

Then "Crucify!" is all their breath,

and for His death they thirst and cry.

Why? What hath my Lord done?

What makes this rage and spite?

He made the lame to run,

He gave the blind their sight.

Sweet injuries! Yet they at these

themselves displease, and against Him rise.

They rise and needs will have

My dear Lord made away.

A murderer they saved,

the Prince of life they slay.

Yet cheerful He to suffering goes

that He His foes from thence might free.

In life, no house, no home

my Lord on earth might have.

In death no friendly tomb

but what a stranger gave.

What may I say? Heaven was His home,

but mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,

no story so divine;

Never was love, dear King!

Never was grief like Thine.

This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise

I all my days could gladly spend.

Love Is

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not LOVE, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not LOVE, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not LOVE, I gain nothing.

LOVE is patient and kind; LOVE does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. LOVE bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. LOVE never ends." 
(1 Corinthians 13:1-8a)

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We get the glimpses of the heaven on earth. We see a little bit of heaven in the birth of our children or when we hold our grandchildren. A little heaven is with us in the love of our husbands and wives, and moms and dads. A tiny bit of heaven is in the hug of a friend, a kind word from a stranger, a breath of fresh air, and the few minutes your back doesn't ache.

But these moments are fleeting and unpredictable at best: passing instances of happiness and hope that are all eventually overwhelmed by the gloom of the glimpses of hell we also get: death, divorce, violence, loneliness, illness, injury...

Thank God that neither heaven nor love are all happy feelings and unbending optimism. Heaven is above all things being in the presence of God. Participation in Holy Communion, hearing the gospel in your church, receiving a benediction from your pastor, receiving absolution for your sins, singing hymns praising God and His glory, reading and listening to Scripture, remembering your baptism into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: all of these things are ever-present glimpses of heaven on earth: immutable and accessible. And all of these treasures are waiting for us each and every day regardless of how happy and heavenly we're feeling.

Jesus is, above all things, love. Patient, kind, humble, giving, rejoicing, truthful and never-ending. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things because that's what the love of Christ has already done unto death. His is the love that makes all power, knowledge, and faith possible. Without His love, we are nothing, yes it’s true, but never forget that with His love, we are everything.

If the glimpses of hell are getting you down, you know where to go for a real glimpse of heaven on earth. Click here to find a church near you.

Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is from 1 Corinthians 13:4a

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Love is patient. -------> 5 count inhale

Love is kind." -------> 5 count exhale

Laughing at Jerusalem

"Judge not, and you will not be judged

condemn not, and you will not be condemned forgive, and you will be forgiven." Luke 6:37

When I was in the deepest throes of chronic-pain-induced depression, I would get pictures in my mind like day dreams. I'd see Jesus standing in a white robe, talking and laughing, and when He'd see me, He'd stop laughing. He would get this disgusted look on His face and turn His back on me. An awful lie.

The symptoms of my disease, the disease itself and the shame it brings, are all results of sin. Some results of sin we can control, and some we cannot. When we see someone living out the result of sin in a way we think they ought to be able to control, what is our reaction? One of disgust? Or  one of love?

Bullying isn't a sin unique to children. It's laughing at people with tattoos or piercings, spitting on an openly homosexual person, figuratively or literally, or spitting on those who stand against homosexuality. It's talking badly about someone who spends their surplus income on luxuries for themselves, scoffing at Muslims and Christians, rolling our eyes at unwed mothers and at housewives. It's being repulsed by the overweight, the alcoholic, the homeless, and it's being repulsed by those who do the repulsing. 

The tragedy is that so many of us are led to believe the knee-jerk disgust we feel for each other is appropriate and even condoned by God.

As I'm invited to laugh at the mistaken and the God-given inclination to judge the sin turns into the sinful inclination usurp God's place and judge the sinner, I have to ask: Did Jesus laugh at Jerusalem? Or did He weep for it? (Luke 19:41-44) The world hates us, that's true, and we hate it right back. But when we hate the people in it―the people Jesus died for―when we judge them as either saved or damned by what they wear, or judge them as nonredeemable because of what they confess today, when we believe that "they" are the sinful ones so much more deserving of eternity in hell than we are, we hate Jesus. We hate His love and the fact that He died for the WORLD and EVERYONE in it, and we become the mistaken.

Love for another is not condoning their sin (or our own), and love for God is not disrespecting the people He loves, and it certainly is not inviting others to disrespect them along with us. LOVE is desperately wanting to change their minds, for Christ's sake and for theirs.

Nothing anybody can do, wear, feel, or even believe can make Jesus hate them. Jesus will always want every single person the Father created to believe and act rightly until their dying day when time for their salvation has run out. He gave His life for that. For them. He understands the fate of those who reject Him with the sin of unbelief (whether in the form of outright rejection, naive ignorance, or plain old-fashioned self-righteousness) better than anyone, and He cries for them.

Jesus doesn't hate. Jesus is patient and kind. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He doesn't condone sin or sinful actions, He doesn't laugh, He isn't disgusted, He doesn't mutter insults behind anyone's back, and He doesn't turn His back on anyone. He weeps: with us in our pain and for us and our errors. And He gives Himself for OUR salvation. What are we willing to give to keep every possible person from rejecting that salvation? Are we really going to reject them right back with giggles, whispers of disgust, and feelings of our own superiority?

If so, whose salvation is less secure?

Suggested verse to repeat when that knee-jerk sin pops up is from Ephesians 4:5

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Speak the truth -------> 5 count inhale

in love." -------> 5 count exhale

Such a Worm as I

Alas! And did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut His glories in When God, the mighty Maker, died for man the creature's sin.

"Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed"

a hymn by Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

A worm? Really? That's a little harsh. We all make mistakes, but... I suppose I have days when I feel a bit more wormy than like a person. Usually after a few sick days in a row, I start to feel pretty worthless. Sickness and injury aside, we've all lost a job or been denied one, been dumped unexpectedly or blindsided by a divorce, yelled at by someone, or made some mistake that still causes our stomachs to lurch. 

Remember: Jesus loved you before you were redeemed. Otherwise, why would He have bothered to redeem you? 

So, if you should happen to feel more worm than man today, remember what you're worth: the Son of God. Feel guilty that such an innocent man and God had to suffer for you. We all ought to because we all are. But know you are loved no matter what. We all ought to because we all are.

God commands us to forgive as we have been forgiven (Colossians 3:13), and that means understanding that we've been forgiven, too.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—

though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—

but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us."

Romans 5:6-8

Ridiculous Love

"And the ProDiGaL son arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and FeLT comPassioN, and ran & emBracEd him & kissed him... But [the older son] was AnGrY and reFuseD to go in." (Luke 15:20, 28)

We know the story: The Parable of the Prodigal Son, as told by Jesus [see Luke 15:11-32 for full text]. The younger son asks his father for his inheritance before his father is dead, the father gives it to him in his first act of ridiculousness, the younger son then goes off and blows it all on gambling and prostitutes until he's destitute to the point of wanting to eat the same food as the pigs he's feeding (BTW for a Jewish person, that's the rock bottom of all rock bottoms).

The Prodigal Son by Frank Wesley

Meanwhile, the older son, who faithfully stood by his father the whole time, watches in bitterness as his father then welcomes his undeserving younger brother home and back into the family he so willingly and rudely left of his own accord with a feast, no less.

This parable of Jesus' is right on the money, isn't it. I mean, come on. How many of us are with the older son here?? It isn't fair that the younger, ungrateful son should be welcomed in such a manner after sinning so gravely against his father. The older son deserves better. His father owes him... um... hmm...

Then I imagine God the Father running to me, long white robes billowing behind Him, His arms open wide, smiling, laughing and hugging me so tightly I can't even breathe, and all the while not mentioning a word about those times I missed church, those times I talked badly about a friend, the swear words and dirty jokes, the arguments, the anger, the pride…

...and suddenly, that forgiving father running towards his ungrateful, undeserving son doesn't seem quite so ridiculous anymore.

This story isn't about the prodigal son at all. It's about the forgiving father. Neither son appreciated their gift, although the younger finally got the general idea when, so taken aback by his father's warm welcome, he forgot to offer to try and work off his debt as a slave (as though such a betrayal could ever be worked off) and was only able to utter that fact that he was unworthy of such love as he accepted it in dumbstruck awe (Luke 15:21).

The moral of the story? Every single one of us is a prodigal son in one way or another―extravagant either in the love that we waste or the love that we refuse to give―and we are all also baptized into Jesus' perfection. So, why not come home today? You've got nothing to lose and literally everything to gain. Go to church if you haven't been in a while or in a lifetime. Try reaching out to someone who doesn't deserve it. Sure, some will still pout and disapprove like this poor older son did, but Jesus promises that at least One Person will run to you, arms open with nothing but sheer joy at the sight of you. That's what He died for. Wouldn't you rather be at the party than out in the barn by yourself anyway?

Click here to find a church near you.

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Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day comes from Psalm 130:4

Pain Rehab buddies, remember to breathe!

“But with You -------> 5 count inhale

there is forgiveness.” -------> 5 count exhale
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Click here for more on FORGIVENESS.

One Thing I Do

"BUT one thing I do: 
ForGettinG what lies
beHind & STRAINING
ForwarD to what LIES ahead,
I Press on Toward the goal
for the prize of the upward CALL
OF God in Christ JESUS." 
(Philippians 3:13b-14)

Do you ever have those days when you're hit with everything you've done wrong? Everything wrong that was ever done to you? When you can't shake that one terrible memory--or any of the hundreds--the thought of that one mistake you or others are still feeling the consequences of? Everything you thought was helping wasn't, everything you thought was going well is nothing but a hot mess and so on.... I do. Lord, how I do.

Positive thinking is hard on those days. Getting out of bed, or to bed in my case, is hard. I can't turn the bad thought off, and I can't think up my own happy thoughts to lull me to slumber: memories of my mistakes are just too strong. So, I focus on what IS right and pray something to this effect:

Thank You, Jesus, for dying for everything I did, am doing, and will do wrong, and everything wrong that's ever been done to me. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for helping me do at least some things right and bringing peace to sleep at night. And thank You, Father, for loving me, your silly daughter-who-can-do-no-right, enough that my baptism washes every kind of wrong away.

Maybe tonight I'll sleep some. And if not, well, that's okay too. God refuses to dwell on my mistakes, and so do I. One thing I do? I press on.

Suggested verse to repeat if it's a difficult day is derived from Philippians 3:13-14

PRC buddies, remember to breathe!

"Forgetting what lies behind -------> 5 count inhale

I press on." -------> 5 count exhale