The Power Of This Amazing Radical Love

Slate Project
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Tara Ulrich (Twitter: @diakonia78) is a minister of Word and Service; a deacon of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) serving in western ND. She is passionate about justice, mercy, kindness and especially mental health. She is the daughter of a woman who lives daily with a mental illness. She self-published that story into a book titled Living as A Daughter: 31 Days of Mental Illness.

When I lived in Moorhead, Minnesota, I had the privilege of meeting Dr. Jacqueline Bussie, who teaches at Concordia College. Recently she was to release her third book, Love without Limits. However, much to her dismay, the publisher censored some of her words — true stories of her LGTBQ and Muslim friends.

They wanted her to remove these stories. She refused to have her book censored and lost her contract.

Like her, I’m saddened at the powers that be who felt these true stories weren’t worthy of being told. These are stories that need to be told. God’s love truly is a love beyond limits. I can’t help but think of John 3, verses 16–17 (NRSV):

“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. God did not send God’s son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”

God sent God’s son to show us this amazing radical love. A radical love that God calls us to share in this broken messed up world. A radical love that shows us how to love even those we may not always agree with in this world.

This radical love is a megaphone that calls us to shout and share this love each and every day.

Yes, there will be days when it is seems so much easier to hate than love. Yet, that’s why this love is so radical. This love that opens our hearts to love especially those that are different than us. This love that God gave us in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s one and only son: Jesus. That’s how much God loves all of the world.

Yet, there are people out there who choose to not to share this love. They choose to let power overcome this amazing radical love because they think the world isn’t ready to hear it yet.

But we need to hear it. We need to see the power of this amazing radical love that breaks the boundaries of society and allows us to love beyond our own limits.

Are we willing, like Jacqueline, to not let power win — but to love beyond limits?

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