Donna Burke

A perfect kind of love that we all need

When I think of Easter, I see it as very sacred time. One which I don’t take lightly.

It’s a perfect kind of love that has brought nothing but healing, joy, restoration, freedom, goodness, peace, and has given me a deep understanding of who I am, and what I have been called to do.

It’s a kind of love that the world needs, and that we need as people. And what I love knowing is that Gods love is inclusive, it’s for everyone – you don’t need to be perfect, or “sin free” before accepting His love. You just have to be you, and run into his presence, and be open to receiving His love.

God gave His only son, Jesus, as an ultimate sacrifice of love for us, and Jesus willingly died for all of us – so that we can have and receive this perfect unconditional love with God.

Looking for answers

I remember the words: “YOU ARE WORTHY, BECAUSE I SAY SO, BECAUSE I CHOSE YOU, AND WILL ALWAYS CHOOSE YOU!”  so clearly whilst wiping away my tears in my car. I was twenty years old at the time, half way through my performing arts studies, and I was about to start a modeling job that I despised. I felt lost, disappointed with myself and resented the season I was in.

At that point in my life I wanted more. I wanted to experience a life worth living, one that I felt called to live. I was tired of running. Tired of trying to escape from all the heavy sadness and disappointment that I felt constantly through alcohol, partying, and dating. I wanted truth in my life – real truth – substance that carried weight and profound meaning, I wanted emotional healing and restoration, and I wanted to understand Christianity for myself on a personal level. 

THE WRONG KIND OF LOVE

I grew up with the mindset that who I was, was not good enough, worthy of anything special, talented, or clever enough. And in some ways I think I accepted this way of thinking, and never ever allowed myself to dream, because I didn’t think that I was worthy to have dreams let alone pursuing them.

Many factors, and general life experiences can shape our mindsets, character, identity, and values, so much so that we live out of those broken mindsets and experiences that have shaped us, whether it be good or bad – as if it were our norm, our truth.

When in fact we are settling in life, and letting lies deceive us from living lives that should be full of joy and emotional freedom.

THE PERSUIT OF REAL LOVE

When I started my personal relationship with Jesus, I was a very broken person, and I was hungry for more – if not desperate. I was tired of trying to find happiness, love, acceptance, and a feeling of worth through empty things and broken relationships. Plus, I was also tired of people telling me who they thought I was, or who I should be.

I wanted God to show me who I was, who He made me to be, and what His purpose and plan was for me. Something that we all want and crave to know – who are we really, and what is our purpose.

It may sound strange going from earthly, material things, and empty relationships that are visible, and almost tangible in many ways, through to wanting to find truth in a God who we can’t see or sit down with in person to learn from.

However, I had to take a step out in faith in the unseen, start reading the Bible, praying in my day to day, actively read books about Him and meeting and hanging out with other Christians in order to discover who God was on a personal level.

Fourteen years later on this journey, and I honestly cannot get enough, just when I think I have God figured out, He reveals something new and beautiful to me about who He is, that I stand in complete awe and wonder. It honestly is one of the most exciting and fulfilling journeys that I get to do every single day.

THE KIND OF PERFECT LOVE THAT WE ALL NEED

When I think of Easter, yes of course chocolates come to mind, but most importantly I clearly see the image of the cross in my mind. I sense such a deep unconditional, and sacrificial love that I often can’t comprehend sometimes.

A kind of love that says:

“I chose you, and I will always choose you, despite flaws, faults and sin, I choose you and love you just the way you are. “

• A kind of love that is worth dying for.
• A love whereby a man suffered in excruciating, and unbearable physical pain.
• A love that was rejected by many.
• A love the withstood humiliation, embarrassment, and verbal abuse was inflected upon by many.
• A love that said: “FATHER FORGIVE THEM”.
• A love that will always choose us unconditionally.
• A kind of perfect love that we ALL need.
• A kind of love that is available for ALL.

How could we not want to run towards Him?

I have always loved Easter. The small rituals, the great celebrations – even the heavy scent of Easter lilies in the church floral arrangements – all these things were part of my childhood. But the most special memory of all is of a little 7-year-old kneeling at the altar in a sun-baked tent pitched next to the murmuring Atlantic Ocean in Sea Point, Cape Town, a little girl weeping at her first real glimpse into the meaning of Calvary.

It was customary in those far-off days to have special children’s meetings and Auntie Babette, as the evangelist was called, had a real gift for sharing the old, old story with little children. With every means at her disposal, she tenderly pointed us to the Saviour, and since she never saw us as too young to make a decision, she always made room for an altar call, a place to invite Jesus into our hearts – terminology that seems somewhat old-fashioned to many these days. But it is a decision I have re-visited time and again over the years, sometimes to remind myself of just how simple the Gospel actually is, sometimes to weep for my own hardness of heart as an adult.

With increased age has come increased understanding – most of the time. The mystery of what Jesus did on the cross is a theme that has been explored by greater minds than mine for centuries. Sometimes I catch a fleeting glimpse of the greatness of the Sacrifice and the awfulness of the Suffering, and then once again, I weep as a little child at the sheer joy of knowing that because He died for me, I can live for Him. That my sin has been taken and thrown into the ‘sea of forgetfulness’. That the burden of separation from God has been replaced by the dance of the forgiven. That death is no longer to be feared, because it has forever been swallowed up by His victory over the grave!

The Easter story is woven together of those things that are so much part and parcel of the hardest parts of our human experience. From being praised to being betrayed, from the sweetness of human companionship to the terrible pain of betrayal, from fullness of joy to emptiness of loss, Jesus experienced it all. And why? So that we can never say “God, you don’t know what it’s like.”

He not only knows but when we find ourselves at our most vulnerable, when the burden seems too heavy or the pain too great, we can, as it were, look sideways, like the thief on the cross, and see Him hanging there too, offering us hope in the midst of apparent death. And He says: “Because I suffered and endured every test and temptation you can think of, I can help you every time you pass through the ordeals of life.”

I once heard Reinhard Bonnke say that we can never love people like Jesus does until we see them through His eyes as He hung on the cross. In the cut and thrust of life lived with fallible human beings, I have often had reason to be reminded of this. I am moved by the thought of those agonised eyes looking through the blood-caked evidence of His terrible mocking crown to see the heartbreak of His mother and offer her the protection of a surrogate son, His beloved friend, John. They were marked for the rest of their lives by His loving act of comfort. And I am challenged by those same eyes looking down on the greedy gamblers rolling dice for His clothes and the hate-filled faces of His accusers, only to say the words of forgiveness so many have flung out since then in their own agony of martyrdom – “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

However, the reason I am a Christian is not because of the pathos of the crucifixion, moving as it is. I am a Christian because that awful death was followed by an amazing, glorious resurrection that defies all human logic and is even beyond imagination. I know He is alive. How? Because I can talk to Him and I know He hears me – His answer always adjusts my thinking and enlightens my own spirit. Because accepting Him into my life has proved to be an ongoing life-choice that keeps changing me into more I ever thought I could be. Because when I am weakest, He makes me strong and takes me through. As I said earlier – He knows all about being human!

Resurrection joy is the foundation of my life. It lights the path to eternity with more than wistful hope. It is the sure knowledge that because He lives, I shall live also – eternally! Jesus said and I believe it.