there are a lot more of these bumper stickers floating around today than there were yesterday.
i hope the meaning takes our city and culture by storm.we gave a bunch of these out to the students yesterday @ Ridge as we finished up a series called "The Revolution" with a day that revolved around the phrase LOVE WINS. (Thanks, Rob, for empowering us with that phrase & letting us borrow it.)
The series was all about the Kingdom of God and what Jesus had to say about it. That's all we've talked about for a month.
it's interesting that Jesus never actually defines the Kingdom of God. He never says "the Kingdom of God is..." He only says "the Kingdom of God is LIKE..." and then He tells a story.
we tried our best to explain the Kingdom of God in 1 sentence the 1st week. our meager attempt was that "God is making everything the way God wants it to be and He wants my help."
and then it's crazy that the Kingdom of God is so OPPOSITE. but then again, that's the essence of what a revolution is. because "normal is boring. opposite is revolutionary."
and if Jesus were here today He probably wouldn't call it "the Kingdom of God". He chose that phrase because that was the hot button of the context He was in. Not sure what we would call it today, but we went with The Revolution.
because that's what it is. a revolution.
and this revolution is not for some specific place or for some specific time or in 1 compartmentalized area of our lives. it is literally "Revolution Everywhere."
yesterday in Student Impact we were brave enough to try to sum up this Revolution in 2 simple words. "LOVE WINS."
because Jesus summed it all up with "love" (Matthew 22). Paul summed it all up with "love" (1 Corinthians 13). and everything we had talked about all month long that Jesus ever said about the Kingdom of God really comes down to LOVE. love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, turn the other cheek, give, etc... etc... it's all so opposite. more of the same doesn't win. evil for evil doesn't win... love wins.
can it be possible that the most humble, vulnerable, lowliest, and seemingly "weakest" position of LOVE can actually WIN in this world we live in?
tomorrow i want to dive into some more thoughts about what Paul had to say about love when he was trying to help this group of people in Corinth live their lives as a part of The Revolution.
