It's crazy what people will do when love is at stake.
In 2007, former astronaut Lisa Nowak got caught up in a dramatic love triangle. She was in love with a man who was in love with another woman. So, overcome with anger, she donned an adult diaper and set out on a cross-country road trip to confront her rival. The media, of course, had a field day with the story. It didn't help that she was armed with a BB gun and a black wig.
Commenting on this woman's absurd behavior, cartoonist Tim Kreider quipped, "When love is at stake, you do not waste time on rest stops."
Nowak, it seems, was not so much driven by love as by jealousy and it would be hard to defend her behavior, given that there is reason to believe she intended to attack her ex-boyfriend’s new love interest.
As I thought about the foolish love of this woman, I thought about a greater love that, to so many, looks equally foolish.
"The message of the cross," wrote the apostle Paul, "is foolish to those who are headed for destruction." And I can see why.
On the cross, a man who claimed to be God hung naked and bloody. The media, of course, had a field day with the story. They humiliated and ridiculed him, laughed at him and mocked him as he slowly suffocated. Why in the world would anyone willingly submit themselves to something as scandalous as the cross?
Love.
Love compelled the God of the universe to step down from His throne and don human skin. Love compelled Him to befriend the lowest of the low, to engage the outcasts, to dine with prostitutes and tax collectors. Love is what compelled Him to sacrifice His life for the very ones who murdered Him.
It's crazy what people will do when love is at stake.
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