How He Loves

Two weeks ago, I had the unbelievable privelege of spending my week with 147 middle school students and their 38 high school counselors at our summer camp, Camp KRIC (Kids Rooted in Christ). The theme for the week was "Relentless Pursuit". You may immediately assume that this theme was directed at us--at our pursuit of God. But in all actuality, the week and our discussion and prayer was centered much much more on the idea that our Father is radically and relentlessly in pursuit of a relationship with each of us.

In an action beautifully inspired by the Holy Spirit, after an afternoon of intense presentations and witness talks, I asked my campers and counselors to process what they had just heard by anonymously writing down what particular struggle was standing in the way of allowing them to have a deeper relationship with God. The picture above depicts some of the responses. As I read the responses two days later, I was brought to tears at the vulnerability and pain expressed in their little post-it prayers. Countless post-its simply stated, "I hate myself". Others said things like "My dad's drug use stands in the way", "What if it's just a lie?", "I don't understand why God lets such bad things happen to people", and "I feel like I'm not good enough for him". As I read page after page, prayer after prayer, I was moved and humbled by our inability to see ourselves for who we are.

That day and throughout the week, we played a song by David Crowder Band called "How He Loves" and in this song, they repeat the simple words, "Oh, how he loves us". This song became the unofficial theme song for the week and the other day I was reflecting on this truth. And I was wondering why such a simple song, with such seemingly simple lyrics could have such an unbelievable impact on us.

And then the Lord provided me such a beautiful and humbling insight: "Megan, because you DON'T know that I love you". And he's right. We spend our entire lives searching for love. Essentially every action of our day is motivated by the desire for love or appreciation or meaning. We want to be cared for. We want to be desired. We want to be admired. We want to matter.

What we don't realize is that we already are cared for; we are desired; we are admired; and we do matter. Our very creation points to the fact that God is deeply and irrationally in love with us. He is faithful when we are complacent. He is merciful when we don't deserve it. He is patient when we struggle to trust him. He provides his love for us through other people; he comes to us tangibly in the Eucharist; he delights in our faith and forgives our disbelief. His love is perfection. And if we aren't convinced of that love, we can turn to the most beautiful image of it as we face the Cross and recognize that we don't just have a God who likes us, but one whose love is so intense and so unrelenting that he sacrificed all for us.

It is in thinking about the reality of this love that we realize that it is what we have been endlessly searching for. The campers, counselors and myself were entranced by the words of this song because they expressed the deepest longing of our hearts--to know that we are loved. For who we are. Despite our mistakes. And in light of everything this world has told us. WE ARE LOVED. And in the end, his love is credible; his love sustains; his love endures.