Walking With LionsSample

“As I have loved you.” That’s a tall order! How did Jesus love the men walking with Him that night? He had chosen them when they had nothing to offer Him, He was infinitely patient when they were so slow to catch on, and He saw potential in them when they were utter failures. Jesus looked past their failures and their selfishness, and still loved them to the uttermost. Love always contains a risk of being hurt. Are we willing to take that risk?

C.S. Lewis wrote, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers . . . of love is Hell.”

Lions know we can only love well if we’re convinced Jesus loves us well.

• Jesus, You took the risk to love those who misunderstood and who ran away, and even those who nailed you to a cross. You took the risk to love me. Let Your love capture my heart so that I begin to love the people around me with Your kind of love.