"because he first loved us..."

"Friend, I know your heart is raw
But love is still a worthy cause
Picking up and pressing on
Oh, love is still a worthy cause
Like the touch that starts the thaw
Oh, love is still a worthy cause
or the word that breaks the pause
Oh, love is still a worthy cause..."
-Sara Groves

Watching  the BBC and MSNBC, listening to NPR, praying, contributing, weeping...my heart leaps, and crawls, and keens...

Sara's "Love is Still a Worthy Cause," lifts me up, dusts me off, hugs me tightly, and takes my hand...and pulls me back into the light of praying, serving, giving...loving.  Please take four minutes to watch this video of "Love is Still a Worthy Cause."  Jesus' example of loving beyond what is reasonable...of loving us first...inspired her, and is more than enough for me.

As she shares in this video...

"God goes to great lengths to come find me,
to come into my chaos, to come and walk into my despair,
to bring hope to me.
He has been so generous to me, I can't help but be generous.
He's asked me to pay attention...."

Thank you Sara...you've given words to what is in my heart. This is the poem that flowed from my pen today:

"You've taken this too
far"
his mother says
as he
braves the buffeting
of strangers...and those who once
asked him to dinner...
the curious and skeptical, who
now greet
him with 
raised fists...

"he's pushing himself," they say
to within a stone's throw - 
just
far enough...
beyond the precipice
of his falling
out of
favor

it is enough already..
you've raised the
dead,
cleansed lepers,
turned water into wine,
fought demons...

why do you need
to turn
the mirror of Truth
on the hypocrisy of leaders
priests
the holy men
of
the temple...

why do you feel
you must
love the adulteress,
eat with sinners,
exalt Publicans,
feed the poor,
and travel with women...
asking us questions
giving voice to the voiceless...

they would have loved you
they would love you still..
if only you would try to fit in
just try
to
see things their way
and be the Messiah
of their
imagining.

a living
but slightly compromised
Messiah
must be better
than a crucified King of Kings...
what gospel
can you preach,
what good can you accomplish
from the lonely precincts
of a tomb...

How will you convince them
of your divine
heritage
if you are not here to argue
in your own defense?

Are you not low enough
humble enough
broken enough...
a crown of thorns,
the taunting,
the lash, the gall...
to lift yourself
to the
heights of who you are and
who I always knew
you could,
would,
might,
must be...

oh woman
your love is great
you want so much for me...
but I want even more
for them

prophets and god-fearing men
they have always had,
the sage, the devout,
the good...
they already are

to save oneself
is what would be expected
of someone who prays
for the deliverance
of the chosen...

but
to love one's enemies,
to feed the stranger
and the ones who worship differently,
to forgive when betrayed,
to heal the ear of the soldier
who comes to arrest the innocent...
to love,
to love...to love "even this" ...
is a divine
surprise
an arresting, shocking,
paradigm-altering expectation

they will stop and wonder
...
and in that space
of suspended animation
a gasp of grace
an updraft of Spirit
will occur
leading thought to
soar, sweep
catch the thermal
of higher aims
more demanding moments
of unreasonable love

the kind of love
you taught me
when...still, just a girl yourself...
you
walked
with dignity and grace
above the
soft jeering and
the whispered stares
of the
rightly righteous
considering your story...

I have learned well
from you

wait for me...
I have a divine
surprise
even
for
you...

a message of love
that will live
forever...

"The best way to find yourself
is to lose yourself in the service of others."
- Mahatma Gandhi

thank you Sara...with Love,

Kate
Kate Robertson, CS