thrive community

Our perspectives of what it means to be loved is greatly influenced by how people have treated us in the past. For most of us, we are fortunate to have received grace in extreme ways from friends and family who show care for us the most. But even with our closest relationships, there have been conditions to its delivery.

The goal of God is to shape our hearts to be like his, especially for those of us who are followers of Jesus. The more we come to know his heart, the more freedom we will find to express the love we discover there.

The conditions for which God is willing to express his love are boundless in comparison to ours. The Bible clearly illustrate God’s unlimited grace towards those who need it most. God’s desire to reach needy humanity with his love takes precedent over any perceived limitations the average person may see. God is willing to do whatever it takes and leaves no doubt that his love for us is inexhaustible.

In the story of the prodigal son, Jesus is trying to illustrate to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law that God loves sinners in spite of their sin. Jesus takes the opportunity to paint an extreme picture explaining how far God will go, no matter how far “the sinner” has gone.

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We’ve all been here before. It’s that moment when we realize there’s more to life than just getting by. If you’ve never been here before, then you probably have no ambition of ever becoming a constructive human being or accomplishing anything significant in your life like a lazy 30 year-old dude, still living at home with his parents, doesn’t have a job, is a predictable mooch and lives from one excuse to another, justifying his pathetic existence of blogging militantly from his bunk-bed in between playing World of Warcraft with his virtual 15 year-old friend, Hans in Denmark on X-Box Live.

If this describes you, then you are officially a loser and I offer you this counsel: Shut down your computer right now, apologize to your parents for being a loser, take a shower, put on something besides your pajama’s and crocs and go get a job. At this point, in the ‘loser continuum,’ any job will do! (Can you tell I’ve had to give this counsel before?)

For the rest of us, we are probably at a different kind of crossroad. I would guess that most people are looking beyond the path of least resistance to the road of greatest influence. That’s where I am, too.

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