Reckless Love

By now, I'm sure most people who listen to Christian radio or are involved in the Christian community at all have heard of the controversy surrounding Cory Asbury's song "Reckless Love." It has been referred to as the "How He Loves" of 2017. The controversy, as far as I am aware, concerns the use of the word "reckless" in reference to perfect love coming from a holy God. Many people believe that the negative connotations of the word are inappropriate for such a use.

I am a big fan of controversial word choice. I think it has the power to not only attract attention but also to make us think more deeply about what we believe and the words we use to describe it. I once wrote a blog post entitled "The God Delusion" (apparently the name of an atheist work that attempts to debunk the existence of God. Oops.). I'm not sure how controversial this word choice would have been if this atheist work did not exist, but in my mind, the word "delusion" connotes a belief that is simply not true. However, I was using it to refer to "blind faith," believing what you are told without doing your own research. I am not seeking to defend this choice of words right now (you can read the blog post here if you really want to), but I am simply saying that I am no stranger to controversy. Heck, Jesus himself used not only controversial words, but entire controversial ideas. But I digress.

Now for the real purpose of this entry: the meaning of the word "reckless" in the context of this song. Dictionary.com defines "reckless" as "utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action; without caution; careless." Certainly describing God as careless is, itself, careless. But in this context, I don't think it means "careless" as much as "careFREE." God does not have to worry about potential negative consequences of his actions, because God creates those consequences. The first scripture that comes to mind as demonstrating this "recklessness" is, of course, Matthew 18:12-14 - the parable of the lost sheep - mentioned in the song. Leaving ninety-nine sheep to find one IS reckless; dying for someone knowing that they might not even acknowledge it IS reckless. And that is beautiful.