Simple Math

I have always been relatively good at math. My brain enjoys problem solving. The very first test I took in college was a math test, and out of a possible 110 points I made a 106. I was DEVISTATED. Yeh….I know….I couldn't believe how close I had come to a perfect score. After frantically sifting through the pages to find my error, my eyes fell upon possibly the most frustrating truth. It came down to simple addition. I had added wrong in the very first step and the rest was history. One small oversight cost me those points. Here I was, doing college level math, getting tripped up on the elementary stuff. So frustrating….but it proves just how important the simplest of math is.

I was recently asked an interesting question. "What does your flag say". What they were asking me was what my message was….what was the one thing I wanted people to know more than anything else…what defined my song. My response was God REALLY loves us. "Why is that your message", they asked. As I sat formulating the answer in my head - because
lost people everywhere are living sad, depressed, hopeless, desperate, chaotic lives and need to know about the love and grace of Jesus - something dawned on me. It's not just the lost that need to KNOW. I live life everyday with followers of Christ who look much the same. I, myself, often get caught up in the idea that His love for me is based on what I do…and what I don't do. So do I really KNOW? Somehow I think that understanding the love of God is fundamental to everything else. It's like simple math.

Dr. Karl Barth is said to have been one of the most brilliant Christian thinkers and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century. He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. As the story goes, a young student once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Dr. Barth thought for a moment and said this: "Jesus loves me, this I know." What a comeback! What a journey! All of his in-depth studies led him back to the basic and most profound truth - Jesus LOVES us.

It's the first thing we need to wrap our hearts around. I say heart, because our minds can't grasp it. Jesus is relentless in His pursuit. He loves us, He chases after us. And in this world that tells us we aren't enough, God says we are worth His only son's life. When the world tells us we get what we deserve, God tells us his GRACE is sufficient for us. To KNOW the love of God it is to receive all that comes with it…all the forgiveness, all the acceptance, all the freedom. Jesus loves me – this I KNOW. What a firm foundation!