Unoffendable

And as it turns out . . . Zacchaeus’s heart was changed. It didn’t take a big, blasting speech from Jesus at the dinner table, either. The very fact that Jesus wasn’t offended by him, and would be with him, and would show love to him in front of others, and would sit in his dining room—that changed his heart. And that’s just it: it’s always grace t

If you call yourself a Christian, and you want things to be fair, and you want God’s rewards given out only to the deserving and the upstanding and the religious, well, honestly, Jesus has got to be a complete embarrassment to you. In fact, to so many upstanding Christians, He is. He has always been offensive, and remains offensive, to those who se

Loving people means divesting ourselves of our status. We’re not being naive in doing it. We’ve surrendered it for good reason, believing that there is something better in exchange. We decide to be unoffendable because that’s how love operates; it gives up its “status” entirely.

Maybe it’s for the best, since—I’m now convinced of this—most people who genuinely want to know God are not living in a persistent, perpetual state of amazement at His love. And yet, His love is amazing. And His love is persistent and perpetual and unrelenting, even as our emotions, and our attention spans, aren’t.

Choosing to be unoffendable not only helps me sleep at night rather than worrying about my latest online “Stand for Truth,” it also helps me remember that Jesus didn’t even ask me to take a stand for truth on everything. He told His followers to go and make disciples. Make other followers.

Vanauken tells it better, but that’s how I told my kids. I wanted them to know that, while I love God, and I want to be close to Him, He has given us all a choice whether or not to serve Him. When they grow up, they’ll have the option to reject God’s love, to go their own way, to buy in to the idea that “freedom” exists elsewhere. Or they can trust

The thing that you think makes your anger “righteous” is the very thing you are called to forgive. Grace isn’t for the deserving. Forgiving means surrendering your claim to resentment and letting go of anger. Anger is extraordinarily easy. It’s our default setting. Love is very difficult. Love is a miracle.

(Inspiring quote for you to highlight and tweet, immediately: “Everybody’s an idiot but me. I’m awesome.”—@branthansen)