March 16, 2011

Tonight one of my youth told me that my car is not black, but that it is "African American". Hmmm. I love these kids.


Tonight I have been thinking about a word that is used in society a lot these days, especially in pop culture. That word is "ridiculous". We used this as an adjective and an adverb describing everything possible. Being around young people I hear it a lot: "Wow that was ridiculously cool!" or "Its ridiculous how much I want to go to the mall".

I have even come to use the word quite a bit myself, and was called out by a friend the other day. She told me she stopped using the word because of its origins. If you break it down, for something to be ridiculous it is full of ridicule. Actually, Webster defines it as this: Ridiculous- : arousing or deserving ridicule.

My friend went on to describe to me how much she had realized she was using the word in a positive way, but in reality wasn't saying anything good at all. For example she would say to me, "The meeting was ridiculous tonight. It was amazing!". After she learned this word's true definition she began to watch how she used it, and after she told me this story, so did I.

Fast forward to tonight. I am driving home from church, my car full of youth, and I am thinking about how great they are. I mean I really have the best youth in the world. I am leaving for a long trip soon, and I have come to savor every moment with these young people. Tonight was truly special because a lot of them showed up and we had a great service followed by tons of fun at Chick-fil-a. I really enjoyed the night with them.

All this made me think about making my FB status about them. I was thinking I would simply say, "I love my youth". However, as I got closer to home the thought came to me to say, "The way I love these youth is ridiculous". Just meaning that I love them so much. Then I remembered my friends conversation. I thought maybe I shouldn't use that word. It was then that I began to think about the love of God.

You see, He loves us, His people, so much. He loved us enough to create us, knowing we were nothing but trouble. Then, after we proved our massive stupidity and disobedience to Him over and over and over again for generation after generation, He decided to send His only Son as a sacrifice to win us back.

I bet if people could have counseled God before He made this decision, they would have asked "why?". They would have wondered why the God of the universe, Who could snap His fingers and wipe everything out in an instant and start all over again, would make such a sacrifice for the very people Who are constantly spitting in His face. Not only that, but to send His ONLY Son to be criticized and beaten, emotionally and spiritually as well as physically... why? They may have even ridiculed the very God of all over His decision.

He did it anyway. Wow. What a ridiculous love.


John 3:16
Romans 10:9-10

Thanks for reading!

Julie