Love Lay Down

I used to think that superheroes wore capes. I used to think that success meant that you were better at something than everyone else. And I used to think that love meant making one big sacrifice instead of a thousand little ones.

But I was wrong.

“Mamaaaaaaa…”

I close my eyes and mouth the words even as they reached my ears.

“Can I have a snack?”

Are we serious. It’s not as if you haven’t eaten once every 27 minutes of this very day.

“Mamaaaa…Averi Kate pooped on the floor.”

Really.

“Mamaaaa…”

There is that. And there is the newborn cry that I don’t have in my house right now, but don’t think for a moment that I’ve forgotten the absolute desperation of wanting to roll over in bed and pretend like I didn’t hear it.

And then there is the clashing of the grown up wills. The urge to burn all the random, half-rolled up socks that I find in every crevice of the house. The compulsion to have the last word in every argument. The tendency to hold every unfulfilled desire against the man who cannot possibly meet them, as hard as he might try.

There is that. And then there is the feeling of being overwhelmed but not knowing why, because the most dramatic thing I did today was to prepare 1.2 million snacks.

And then there is this.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

And in that sentence I find visions of martyrs, of soldiers who die for their neighbors’ freedom, of a Savior who drank the very cup of God’s wrath in my place.

And I think about the snotty noses and hungry tummies and bills and socks in my house and I think, I’m not there.

But then I keep reading, and I watch as the Son of God takes off His robe and bends down and washes the feet of His friends. His friends who don’t get it, His friends who will forsake Him and deny Him and betray Him. Who don’t appreciate the big sacrifice He’s going to make or the little one He’s making right now.

And then I see that laying down one’s life for one’s friends is completely relevant to my life right now.

To lay down my life is to lay down my rights, my pride, my wishes, to serve someone else. And it might culminate in one dramatic moment but more likely it will happen in a thousand moments every day. But the only way I can succeed in laying down my life is to look to the One who defined what love is, to be filled with the vision of Him, and to allow Him to shift my heart’s allegiance from pleasing myself to laying my desires at His feet.

So when I hear the call…

“Mamaaaa…”

Love lay down your life.

When I’m sick of doing dishes and laundry and cleaning up the same messes I cleaned up an hour ago…

Love lay down your life.

When I want the last word because I know I am right…

Love lay down your life.

Because I serve a Savior who already walked that road, and who is crafting a good work in me, and who is ready to show me that the only way to find my life is to lose it…

Love lay down your life.

*****

This is no call to self-fulfillment

Guarding self interest

Or raising self-esteem

Our God, He is a suffering servant

Who bears our burdens

And washes our feet

So love lay down

Love lay down

Love lay down your life

This is no ordinary kingdom

The first are last and

The weak are made strong

And in the moment we surrender

We find it’s sweeter

Than when we held on

Love lay down

Love lay down

Love lay down your life

So in the middle of the fight

Or in the middle of the night

The need is calling

Love lay down your life

And in your everyday

The bleak and the mundane

The need is just the same

Love lay down your life

When the sacrifice is great

I hear You calling out my name

Take up your cross and follow

Love lay down your life

And when we cannot bear the cost

We will behold You on the cross

Your love will never call us

To go where You have

Not already been

So make us one in Your suffering

That we might know You

And come to understand

That love lays down

Love lay down

Love lay down your life