Saturday, October 20, 2007

for love's sake


I have been encountering some beautiful words and some beautiful music lately.

Thursday evening, I had the good fortune to be able to attend the Remedy Tour, and was able to hear both Phil Wickham and David Crowder Band. Good music is refreshing to the soul like cool water poured over the senses. It was a great night. I would go see them again tomorrow night if I were given the chance. I cannot believe that Phil is only 21 years old. He's one of those people who make me anxious to discover more of my giftings and to live into them more. I both delight and grow restless being in the presence of people like that. :)

I am reading Desmund Tutu's "No Future Without Forgiveness" detailing the reconciliation process in post-apartheid South Africa. I'm reading in Palio, a local coffee shop with delightfully large windows that allow me to observe this soggy Portland day. There are some trees outside ablaze with the feeling of autumn. It is a good day.

But about the book...it has nearly brought me to tears (of joy) as I read about the amazing forgiveness that people have offered after such atrocities to their loved ones. Tutu's is a crafty wordsmith, and I have been enjoying his skill with language. I would like to share some of the beautiful things that he has said that have made an impression on me:

"In this theology, we can never give up on anyone because our God was one who had a particularly soft spot for sinners. The Good Shepherd in the parable Jesus told had been quite ready to leave ninety--nine perfectly well-behaved sheep in the wilderness to look for, not an attractive, flufy little lamb - flufy little lambs do no usually stray from their mummies - but for the troublesome, obstreperous old ram. This was the one on which the Good Shepherd expended so much energy. When he found it, it is highly unlikely to have had beautiful fleece. It would have almost certainly have been thoroughly bedraggled and perhaps fallen into a ditch of dirty water and was thus smelling to high heaven. That was the sheep the Good Shepherd had gone after, and when he found it he did not pinch his nostrils in disgust. No, he took it and placed it gently on his shoulders and returned home to throw a party because he had found this lost one. And Jesus says there is GREATER joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine needing no repentence."

"God loves me as I am to help me become all that I have it in me to become, and when I realize the deep love God has for me, I will strive for love's sade to do what pleases my Lover. Those who think this opens the door for moral laxity have obviously never been in love, for love is much more demanding than law."

At the concert, David Crowder said something beautifully profound that I think is a lot of what Tutu is writing about. He said, "If we [Christians] can only live like we sing, the world will surely be a better place." Amen. Let it be so.