if You could love me as your wife...

A month or so ago, several friends of mine went to see Derek Webb. I hadn't heard of him before, and I actually just got his album "The House Show" yesterday from Jeremy. His voice isn't the best (at least not on this album, live), but I think the songs are great. One song that I knew I would love just from the lyrics and the concept is "Wedding Dress." As an intro to the song, Derek talks about how the Gospel is beautiful and offensive and it has to be both. It's dangerous, and it's controversial. Jesus is dangerous, controversial, beautiful, offensive and scandalous. There's not much that's safe about Him.

I was having a conversation with a friend last night about this. In terms of people receiving the Gospel, I think for "newer" Christians, it can be good to present a safer, cleaner, protective Gospel. A saving Jesus, not a fighting one (for some reason, He can't be both, I guess). I think that if you force a dangerous, controversial view of God onto them, they're more likely to be turned off from it early on. But I think that safe stage should only last a really short period of time (and the more I think about it, the more I think people should just suck it up and be thankful that Jesus even wanted to fight for them in the first place). Because I don't believe that you can learn much from staying safe. I think that presenting the Gospel in a way that threatens your comfort and challenges you to look beyond the box you know you've already managed to place God in is an amazing idea. I don't feel like people can learn much unless they're challenged. I haven't learned much from the things that didn't challenge me.

When it comes to Jesus, I'm learning to like hearing the things that make people shift in their seats. It's part of why I love listening to Pastor Furtick every week. He's challenging, and he's really not afraid to say things that make people nervous. (My favorite example so far being the "I should be in hell" example). This song is something that breaks us down a little. I think it's funny how one word can throw some people off:

I am a whore, I do confess.
I put You on just like a wedding dress, and I run down the aisle to You.
...
I am so easily satisfied by the call of lovers less wild
that I would take a little cash over Your very flesh and blood.

I guarantee someone flinched at the word "whore." But Derek writes it and sings it and claims it to explain that we give ourselves away to so many things. We cheat on God, and we give ourselves away to "lovers less wild." Things and people who will never amount to the Love that God gives. Jesus is more beautiful than any lover we will ever find on earth, but we continue to give ourselves away to money and sex and worldly "love."

God is Love, and Love is real and wild and dangerous and comforting but still unsafe. And there's a difference between comfort and safety. God is comforting to me. He gives me peace when my brain can't comprehend how things are going to work out. But God is not safe. Sharing the word of God is not safe. People are going to get mad. People are going to reject it, and they'll reject you for sharing it [Matthew 24:9]. But then again, who's going to take notice of something that's plain and safe. Who wants to follow a God that stays inside the lines and never challenges you to grow.

I'm growing in directions I didn't even know existed.
My God is bigger than neat lines and small boxes and safe boundaries. My God has no boundaries. My God is reckless and dangerous and passionately in love with me, His daughter. He has fought for me, I'll fight for Him.