Not Duty, Nor Sacrifice, Only Reckless Love

Today Jeff and I had the joy of having breakfast with a couple we had never really gotten to know before today.  Circumstances worked out that we had a leisurely breakfast date and just enjoyed hearing about each other’s life.  They’ve been married 25 years and are the epitome of the solid marriage. What was amazing was to hear that 25 years ago they eloped just days after she graduated from high school, leaving a note for parents and running off to California with nothing but $800 to their name.  In order to do this she gave up a full-ride scholarship to a prestigious university, choosing instead to live in a cockroach infested studio apartment and work a full-time job to help make ends meet.  All I could say in response to the story was to tell the husband, “Wow, she must have really loved you!”

But what I noticed was that as they told the story, they recounted it with joy. The wife certainly wasn’t sitting there stoicly saying, “oh yes. Quite the sacrifice i made.”  She didn’t do it out of duty, out of obligation. She did it because she was head over heels in love with this guy and didn’t care about cockroaches as long as she had her man by her side. She happily CHOSE cockroaches over college. Why?  Because of her desire for him.

Desire is so powerful!  Desire, love, compels us to give up incredible luxury, inspires us to risk everything for that which we love.  And only true love can make us want to do it. No duty, no sacrifice, only love.

Any of you who have spent much time around me know that I love love love John Piper.  If you stumble upon a book he’s written, BUY it and READ it. If you stumble upon a sermon of his, LISTEN to it.

Piper’s big thing is overcoming sin by superior pleasure in God, enjoying God.  Like CS Lewis, Piper insists that our desires aren’t too strong, they are too weak.  CS Lewis said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Piper’s point is that when we’re in love with something, giving our life for that thing is no duty, no sacrifice, it’s what we want to do! Only love.

All of these thoughts are swirling around in my mind this weekend.  I long, I ache so much for my heart to be more enraptured by God.  For my affections to be overwhelmed by Him and His glory.  Too often I am that child making mud pies.  I know this because I’m so easily swayed by circumstances.  Happiness ebbs and flows.  I fear what will happen if our house doesn’t sell.  I get upset over criticisms.  I feel insecure far too often. My desires are things like comfort, security, respect.

But I think deep down my heart just longs for heaven.  Worshipping God in song is the closest I can feel to what it will be like, when the things of the world grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.  When, like the woman I talked to, everything in the world pales in comparison to just getting to be with my Man, my Heavenly Father.  When giving up everything–comforts, luxury, financial gain–is no sacrifice, no duty, not a thing to be dreaded and feared, but just love, just joyful, exuberant, whole-hearted love.  Like the giddy bride eloping with her man.

I know it’s not about feelings. Giddy feelings are not what I’m talking about. But perhaps we’re all not affected enough, that is our affections have not been awakened to the glory of our beautiful God.  Tonight at church Joel preached two words. Just two words, from John 3:16.  “For God.”  The entire sermon was on God, His existance and how the world proclaims the glory of God.  As a video was played showing the splendor of creation, tears streamed down my cheeks.  He IS glorious. He IS beautiful. He IS so magnificent and awesome and worthy of our lives. How I long for my life, for your life, to be more affected by adoration for Him.

And when our hearts are captivated by Him, we may find ourselves choosing cockroaches over college, so to speak.  And not out of duty, nor sacrifice, but only reckless love.