How extravagantly do I love Jesus? How willing am I to give my most costly possession away? How eager am I to spend stretches of time with God? How apt to offer money I really need? How likely to spend time on someone I don't know and don't particularly care about? How often do I shed my inhibitions to worship God in a physical, demonstrative, even ecstatic way?
Tough questions. Ones I'd rather not look at too honestly. Love for God is good and right, but extravagant love? It feels scary, risky, threatening to take a lot from me and guaranteeing nothing in return. What is more challenging, I need to offer this love spontaneously. Rarely planned or manufactured, extravagant love simply lives out daily God's greatest commandment: to 'love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength' (Mark 12:30). Those in the Bible who love extravagantly displayed an inner love that wouldn't have them do any differently.
With that same love real in my life, I may not look like Mary, the widow, the Good Samaritian, or David. I'll love God extravagantly in ways that flow from the person God made me to be. I'll love God with all my might, no expense spared, and I'll smile to myself when someday I'm labeled "foolish".
Thanks, Brenda Quinn
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