God's Love is Irrational and His Passion Unreasonable !

Most of us believe that God loves us. For some of us it is “head knowledge”, for others it is both “our head and our heart.” We know both intellectually and emotionally that God loves us. What I think we do not fully understand or appreciate is the passion of God's love for us. Why else would God relentlessly pursue us? Why, in spite of our weakness, sin and rebellion would He have such an irrational love for us? Perhaps it is because that is what real love is like.

At times love is described as warm fuzzy feelings that leave you tingling and tongue-tied? But it's also passionate, sensuous, relentless, and irrational. It causes you to do things that make no sense to “normal” people. Have you ever been so passionately in love with someone that your conduct was unreasonable?

In Brennan Manning's book, The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus (pg.111) he describes a scene from the play Gideon, written by a Jew from Brooklyn named Paddy Chayefsky. This is what he wrote:

“Gideon is out in the desert in his tent a thousand miles from nowhere, feeling deserted and rejected by God. One night God breaks into the tent and Gideon is seduced, ravished, overcome, burnt by the wild fire of God's love. He is up all night, pacing back and forth in his tent. Finally, dawn comes, and Gideon in his Brooklyn Jewish accent cries out, “God, O God, all night long I've thought of nuttin' but You, nuttin' but You. I'm caught up in the raptures of love. God, I want to take You into my tent, wrap You up, and keep You all to myself. God, hey God, tell me that you love me.” God answers: “I love you, Gideon.

“Yeah, tell me again, God.”

“I love you, Gideon.”

Gideon scratches his head. “I don't understand. Why? Why do You love me?”

And God scratches His head and answers, “I don't know. Sometimes, My Gideon, passion is unreasonable.”

That's the kind of love God has for us. My question for you is: “If this is true, what are you going to do with this?”

Mike Evans