Reckless Love . . . On Valentine’s Day and Every Day
Some years ago, Jamie Glazov (The Glazov Gang) wrote about how very much both Islamists and radical Leftists hate Valentine’s Day. He provided examples such as the Saudi regime arresting women for wearing red on days leading up to February 14; Iranian “morality” police outlawing heart-and-flower decorations in shops; and others that put the kibosh on kissing and make valentines a vice.
Glazov also demonstrated how the totalitarian Left despises romance. He provided examples of Communists such as the Weather Underground and Chairman Mao’s unisex clothing fighting all notions of romantic love and individualism. More recent examples include university Women’s Studies programs that demonize Valentine’s Day as “a manifestation of how capitalist and homophobic patriarchs brainwash and oppress women and push them into spheres of powerlessness,” Glazov wrote.
Thank God, the tide is shifting in America on this insanity! Glazov concluded:
This day reminds us that we have a weapon, the most powerful arsenal on the face of the earth. . . And no Maoist Red Guard or Saudi Islamo-Fascist cop ever stamped it out — no matter how much they beat and tortured their victims. And no ISIS Jihadist or Feminazi will ever succeed in suffocating it, no matter how ferociously they lust to disinfect man of who and what he is. Love will prevail.
But there is an even deeper reason for the shift than human love. Whatever is good in human love imperfectly but sweetly reflects the Creator of the Universe’s love for us. While Valentine’s Day is wonderful and full of fun — with romantic dinners, chocolates, flowers (and – in the case of one Valentine’s Day gift my husband once gave me, a TomTom GPS; this was way before we used Google Maps on smartphones) it doesn’t take the Feast Day of a Roman martyr to see the extravagance of God’s love.
As Reckless As It Gets
Every Valentine’s Day, I post to my friends on social media a song that depicts so well God’s love expressed to us in Jesus: Cory Asbury’s “Reckless Love,” (2017, composed by Caleb Culver, Cory Asbury, and Ran Jackson). The refrain exclaims:
Oh, the overwhelming, neverending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ‘til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, neverending, reckless love of God
Upon the song’s release, Asbury had to defend his choice to refer to God as “reckless.” Some who otherwise love the song substitute another adjective for the one! (I even got blocked by a Christian blue check mark woman on X for offering a defense when she criticized it!)
Good grief! Detractors’ lack of appreciation for symbolism and poetic imagery smacks of the Iranian morality police mentality to me! God’s reckless love definitely “leaves the ninety-nine.” Picture the reckless love of a shepherd, as He is so often portrayed – holding onto a tree branch with one hand and scooping up a sheep that has strayed and is now in need of saving from a treacherous ravine. Asbury wanted to express how he has experienced the love of God: furious, crazy, and wild! Just as a young lover might fill an entire room with roses (or pink balloons!) for his girl on Valentine’s Day could be called loving with “reckless abandon,” so can God’s sacrificial love in dying for us.
Picture as well the reckless love of a father for his prodigal son. The craggy-faced, gravelly voiced, prone-to-wander man of God who was my friend, the late Brennan Manning, always said the parable Jesus told is more accurately the story of the Prodigal Father — an overly generous, recklessly loving father. Jesus scandalized His listeners when He showed them how much the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob loved tax collectors, prostitutes, and other sinners. He told it as the story of a father who basically said, “The heck with dignity! I see my son coming!” then hiked up his robes and ran to meet and embrace the hog-aroma-infused wastrel of a boy “when he was still far off.”
Then there’s the bridge in the song:
There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me
I don’t know if Asbury and company are familiar with Francis Thompson, but for me those lines call to mind the late nineteenth-century poet’s great account of God’s love and unwillingness to give up on us, “The Hound of Heaven.” Thompson, a God-haunted drug addict, tells how God pursued him like a hound: “I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him down the arches of the years. . . From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.” A recording of the poem is powerfully read by the great actor Richard Burton. (Please, God, that it touched Burton’s own heart.)
After Valentine’s Day, when the chocolates are eaten and the roses are already clamoring for more water, may the loving suitor that offered up these tokens faithful remain. But more importantly, may those who have not yet found themselves captured by the overwhelming, neverending, reckless love of God be stopped in their tracks as they hear strong Feet following, following after them.
Faith J.H. McDonnell is the director of advocacy at Katartismos Global (KGI), a nonprofit ministry started by the Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs and his wife to equip the saints for ministry. Faith is the author of Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children (Chosen Books, 2007).