December 23, 2009

There is a worship song simply titled Breathe.  The lyrics, like many worships songs, are simple.  Easy.  Repetitive.  Perfect for learning quickly and following along.

This is the air I breathe.

This is the air I breathe.

Your holy presence, living in me.

This is my daily bread.

This is my daily bread.

Your very word, spoken to me.

And I am desperate for you.

And I am lost without you.

That is essentially the entire song.  So simple, elegant… and so far from the truth.

I have never known desperation.  I live in a great land.  The United States.  And though we are going through arguably a depression, I have never known desperation.

I have been jobless.  I have been poor.  But there has always been a meal.  There has always been a roof over my head.  There has always been a safety net, the promise of a blanket.

I have never wondered if I would wake up tomorrow.

I have witnessed desperation.  I’m reminded of a video showing a woman and her child.  The child was in a stroller.  She took her hand off of it for one moment and in that one moment the stroller went right at a set of subway tracks.  And a train was coming.
This woman dove for the stroller.  Not in time, but it didn’t matter.  She actually started to put her hand in front of the train to try and stop the stroller when it was all too late.  Her health didn’t matter; she was desperate to save her child.  Thankfully by a miracle the child actually made it through the ordeal without a scratch.

For that single moment only one thing mattered.  Her child.  An act of desperation that fueled her very actions.  She risked and probably would have suffered harm for the sake of someone she loved so much.

Am I that desperate for God?  I wish I could say yes.  But I don’t think I can.

Is God that desperate for me?  For you?

The answer is a resounding yes.

One of the great quotes of Jesus essentially goes like this: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  (John 13:15)

There is no greater act of love than someone who would give everything for you.  Who would live for you.  Who would die for you.

But Jesus was just not a man of words.  He was a man who meant his words, who lived his words.  After uttering those words he would go on to do exactly that.  To prove exactly that.  He would lay down his life for all mankind.

So we could live.  Truly live.

How desperate is God for us?  So desperate He would go to unimaginable lengths to be with us.  Jesus was born so he could die, among other things, for us.  What a choice that must have been.  Imagine the conversation when that plan was formed.

“Son, I need you to do something important.  Give up all your power, all your knowledge, everything you are.  To be made a human.  Raised a man.  And killed for man.  By man.  The catch is, the whole point of it will only matter for each man if he chooses to let it.  And it’s quite possible many won’t.”

Would you say yes to that?  I don’t think I can.  But God is desperate for you.  God is not a God of second chances.  He’s a God of second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and more chances.  God is a God who would abandon the ninety-nine sheep to come find the one and bring her home.

A parent would do anything for their child.  And God is a parent.  He is the Father.  Loves like a mother.  To Him the great price of sacrifice is worth it.  Is small.
I sometimes wonder if He’s actually taken a look at me.  Surely if He saw me clearly He’d think that all the pain was not worth it.  That all the sweat, tears, and blood was shed for someone who didn’t deserve it.

But the truth is… He knows I don’t deserve it.  And He just doesn’t care.  He wants me anyways.  He wants me, He’s desperate for me.  And the same is true for you too.

I have never felt desperation, and if I may never truly feel it.  But thankfully God has.