The Good Shepherd
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller of New York City, and the Scripture is 1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
All real life changing love is substitutionary sacrifice. If you love a person whose life is all pulled together and they don't need any changes, it costs nothing. It's wonderful and fun. There are 4 or 5 of these people in New York City, and you ought to find them and become their friend. But if you ever try to love somebody who has got needs or who is emotionally wounded, it's going to cost you. Their life needs changing, and you can't love them and bring them up without you going down. You can't do it without somehow their troubles and problems transfering to you.
When an emotionally wounded person comes at you, you want to go the other way. You know that you're going to have to listen to him or her, and it's just so draining to be their friend. But the only way that emotionally wounded people are going to fill up emotionally is if somebody loves them, and the only way to love them is to be emotionally drained. They aren't going to fill up unless you empty out. If you hold onto to your emotional comfort and just stay away from those people, then they will just sink. It is them or you, and the only way to love them is through substitutionary sacrifice. Some of their woundedness and drain is going to have to hit you, so that some of your fullness can go to them. That is just the way that it is.
In John 10 Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus emptied Himself out for us and became a sacrificial lamb. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus says, "I lost everything, so that I wouldn't lose you."
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