Loving the Unlovable

I wanna be a charity case. No, not because I want to be given a lot of free stuff, although I guess that'd be nice.

I was reading this morning about the love of God. This is one of those subjects that I have been learning about practically since I was born, but I still feel like there is so much mystery involved.

I've always heard about different kids of love. About eros, the kind of love that desires. And phileo, the brotherly love. And then you get to agape, which I've always known of as the Big Love, the one that God has for us, the one He wants us to love others with.

Today I read a description of agape I'm not sure I've ever heard before. If I have heard it it got lost somewhere in my brain.

See, the Old English word for agape is charity. At first glance I thought that was a little weird. But once I thought about it, it made sense. When God loves us, He loves us because He wants to give us love, not because we have done anything to earn His love. In fact, we usually do things that on the surface would seemingly make us unworthy of His love.

But He gives it anyway. He gives us charity, a free, undeserved gift.

No one wants to be a charity case in real life. We want to be independent, thinking we can do it all on our own. But the reality is that we can't. I can't.

I need to be given love that isn't based on what I deserve or how I perform, because if that was the standard I wouldn't be loved at all. At the core I'm an unlovely person. But God loves me, even though I'm unlovely.

I want to act the same way. I spend my life trying to know God more, and be transformed into His image, being more like Him. And I realize that if I'm going to do that, I need to start seeing others as charity cases.

Nope, not that they aren't valuable. That would be the opposite of why God loves. Instead, seeing them as so valuable that even though they may not deserve my love, and may be just as unlovely as I am, I can still love them. Still sacrifice for them, still give to them even what they don't deserve.

That is a hard thing. Because in my world I don't want to give people what they don't deserve. They should get what's coming to them, good or bad. But my God sees them differently. He loves even the unlovable.