GOD IS NOT RECKLESS. Sorry, despite what you sing at your church, he's not.

I know some people will accuse me of playing the old lady, fuddy-duddy card here. But guess what: I’m disturbed by the popular CCM song, “Reckless Love.” This despite hearing it in many contexts where sound doctrine is preached, and the Word of God is rightly divided. I have even heard it in a Reformed church!

The lyrics for the most part are pretty good. The first verse is reminiscent of Ps. 139 and Jeremiah 1:5.

Verse 1

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

As to the chorus, there is no question that God’s love is overwhelming and never-ending, but… reckless?

Chorus

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ‘til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

I thought perhaps reckless had a shade of meaning with which I was not familiar, so I googled the definition in several dictionaries:

• Oxford: without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action; heedless of danger or the consequences of one's actions; rash or impetuous
• Merriam-Webster: marked by lack of proper caution; careless of consequences
• The Free Dictionary: acting or done with a lack of care or caution; careless or irresponsible

No, the definition was quite clear. It gets worse when you examine synonyms:

• Merriam-Webster: daredevil, devil-may-care, foolhardy, harum-scarum, hell-for-leather, irresponsible, kamikaze
• Dictionary.com: rash, heedless, incautious, negligent, imprudent
• Collins Thesaurus: careless, wild, rash, irresponsible, precipitate,  hasty, mindless, negligent, headlong, madcap, ill-advised, regardless, foolhardy, daredevil, thoughtless, indiscreet, imprudent, heedless, devil-may-care, inattentive, incautious, harebrained, harum-scarum

Can you find even one word in there that accurately describes God or his love? So why are we singing this in our Bible-believing, evangelical churches?

This song is a production of Bethel Music, where I found the lyrics (printed in entirety at the end of the blog post). After the lyrics, there is a statement by the songwriter which indicates that he knew reckless might not sit well with some people. He says:

"When I used the phrase, 'the reckless love of God,' when we say it, we're not saying that God Himself is reckless, He's not crazy. We are, however, saying that the way He loves, is in many regards, quite so. But what I mean is this: He's utterly unconcerned with the consequences of His own actions with regard to His own safety, comfort and well-being. He doesn't wonder what He'll gain or lose by putting Himself on the line, He simply puts Himself out there on the off-chance that you and I might look back at Him and give Him that love in return." - Cory Asbury.  https://bethelmusic.com/chords-and-lyrics/reckless-love/

Methinks he doth protest too much and knew that reckless was really not a good word choice. I don’t blame him completely because I don’t expect theological sophistication from a songwriter, but I would think one of the Biblically trained pastors at Bethel Church would be on top of an issue like this.

Having said all that, I do enjoy this song and find it very “singable” (not true of all CCM). But when I sing it, I insert a more accurate word, such as…

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, sovereign love of God  OR

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, faithful love of God  OR

Glorious OR righteous OR saving OR holy…

You get the idea. Let’s exalt our God in TRUTH.

Reckless Love

Written by Cory Asbury, Caleb Culver, and Ran Jackson

 Verse 1

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me

You have been so, so good to me

Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me

You have been so, so kind to me

 Chorus

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ‘til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

 Verse 2

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me

You have been so, so good to me

When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me

You have been so, so kind to me

 Bridge

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

https://bethelmusic.com/chords-and-lyrics/reckless-love/

Why is God like that?

I'm on somewhat of an emotional roller-coaster these days, so anything I write should be taken with a grain of salt...

For years I've been trying to figure out why God treats similar people SO differently. Oh, I know he's trying to build different things in our lives.

Take two missionary families, who both go to the USA for Home Ministry at the same time, and both need to raise funds for a new vehicle. At the end of the year, one returns (ours) and is able to buy an old used Land Rover in constant need of repairs. The second family returns with enuf money to buy a brand new air-conditioned Land Cruiser. (That was over 15 years ago; we have had 3 more used vehicles in that time, and the Land Cruiser is still on the road).

Then there's the fact that we prayed faithfully for a teacher to come help home school our children so I could continue in ministry. In 17 years of home schooling, we never once found anyone, but fellow miss'ys in the same town had (and have) teachers year after year.

Some extenuating circumstances:
The second family in the car situation belongs to a home church which provides almost 100% of their member miss'ys' support, as well as many of their project expenses.
Some of the families who got teachers belong to a mission which pools all support so their teachers did not have to wait until they had raised all their support before they could come. Another family belongs to a well-known agency with thousands of members, and therefore abundant human resources.

Okay, but does God need me to make excuses for him by stating these extenuating circumstances? He would be a pitiful God indeed if he is able to abundantly supply the needs only of those who belong to rich churches or big mission agencies.

So why, all other things being seemingly equal, did he not do for us as he did for those others? Enquiring minds want to know!!!

Since I am feeling less emotional than when I began this entry several hours ago, here are some (slightly) objective observations:
-We certainly learned to trust in the Lord, not in vehicles! I remember a one-year period when I should have been stranded at least 3 times, but He miraculously intervened and I was rescued. (Still, He would have less work to do if He just gave us a good car).
-For the past few years, I didn't pray or recruit all that diligently for a teacher (but that was partly b/c I stopped believing God would answer -- not that He could not answer b/c he was certainly doing so for others, but for some reason in our case He would not).
-I am grateful for having home schooled my kids. Even tho I did so out of necessity, not conviction, I came to consider it a privilege.

Something to be grateful for: I know some miss'ys who have been trying to raise support for a long time, are convinced God has called them to the field, and long to be serving Him overseas -- but who just can't get enuf money to do so. We've had our ups and downs of support over the last 20-some years, but God has kept us here where, not only are we serving Him, but we love to be! In light of that, my other complaints seem petty.