Love Beyond Reason

Once I had read the DaVinci Code I had to read the rest of Dan Brown's books. I read the three of Sam Bourne's books one after the other in a month. It was similar once I read Faith and Doubt by John Ortberg I had to read more of his work. It is unusual to have felt this with a Christian author!

Love Beyond Reason is a fabulous title for a book. When we think about the love of God we are in danger of making it so like our love that we demeen it or as Calvinist, we can be in danger of elevating to such a height that we cannot experience it. John Ortberg wants to show that God's love, whilst being far from unreasonable, is above and beyond human comprehension.

Why does God love us? Why was Jesus willing to humble himself and appear in fashion as a man and to be convicted and cruelly put to death on the cross for sinners?

Ortberg does not answer these questions but he does help us to delve more deeply into them.

His illustration all the way through the book is that of his sister's rag-doll. It did not matter how ragged the doll became, she continued to love it. We are all rag-dolls he says. We all have our faults and our failings. We are all full of sin. Yet God loves us.

He begins the book addressing the nature of love. What it is and what it does. That it is caring and kind. That it is observant and willing to be inconvenienced for it's object.

Then he considers God and who and what God is. God's love has the holy Father of heaven caring for and touching this hideous world that has been marred by sin. His love changes lives and hearts. We see it in the New Testament where God the Son enters human suffering and experience. He lives a life different to any other human life. He displays a perfect example of human love. He'll even touch a leper.

Ortberg illustrates the Christian experience, as he does in his other books, with story after story from his own life and the lives of others. He shows how tough the Christian life can be but how the love of God meaning, and perhaps understanding, to all that we suffer in this present world.

The book is honest and humorous. His style is winsome and very entertaining. I think the only criticism I can make is that he becomes a little repetitive. One of the stories he tells here at length also appears in another of his books.

Why God loves his people is an impossible question to answer. That he loves us is a wonderful truth to proclaim and I found myself prticularly stirred and excited as Ortberg attempts to meditate on this deep topic. The impressive thing about his style is that he doesn't come across as the teacher wanting to show the ignorant what they do not already know. He comes across as the brother who wants to talk to us about God. Here is a conversation about God's love that we could all do with having. Tolle Lege.