{"id":576,"date":"2010-03-04T15:09:57","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T21:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/?p=576"},"modified":"2010-03-04T20:29:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T02:29:33","slug":"i-love-you-no-matter-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/2010\/03\/i-love-you-no-matter-what\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Love You…No Matter What”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of pastors these days, I read a number of blogs<\/a>. I often find a post here or there to be helpful and\/or encouraging, but I don’t think any have so quickly and powerfully caused me to weep as one did today. The Gospel Coalition blog<\/a> linked to a blog by Greg Lucas<\/a> in which he shares his reflections on the difficulty of fathering a special needs child.<\/p>\n

I thank God for this brother’s suffering, his perseverance, and for him sharing that process with others. It lead me to fresh repentance; it led me to fresh faith in the undying love of our Father. Here’s a sample<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Almost daily I have to physically restrain my son. It is a physical battle to change his diaper and clean his body. Many times while cleaning and changing him I have been kicked in the face, bitten, smacked, clawed, or hit with flying objects. It is not all that uncommon to come away from a cleanup with a bloody lip or a new scratch. …<\/p>\n

I must confess that on many mornings I leave Jake\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room dejected, hurt and emotionally drained. And many nights I find myself restraining the violent resistance of a struggling boy by wrapping him in my arms against his will and gently whispering, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love you. I love you. I love you\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6no matter what.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Most children are relational and have the ability to reciprocate affection. But what happens when the child cannot communicate love? …\u00c2\u00a0The only possible way to make any sense of this kind of relationship is to experience it through the truly unconditional love of God the Father. As I reflect on my seemingly one sided relationship with my son, I am forced to see how it is sometimes a portrait of my own relationship with God.<\/p>\n

In the defiance of my son to be loved, cared for and washed clean, I am shown a portrait of the cross. The one-sided violence of love reveals a blurred vision of my own redemption, as a bloody, beaten, crucified Savior wraps me in His arms, subdues me with His affection and whispers in my ear, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I love you. I love you. I love you\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6no matter what.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Other posts<\/a> are equally as moving and gospel-focused. Read and weep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like a lot of pastors these days, I read a number of blogs. I often find a post… Continue Reading ›<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,36,39],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":581,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions\/581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desertspringschurch.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}