The song that has everyone going crazy
26th Oct 2018
Tags:
Music
News
Cory Asbury
Praise and Worship
A few days ago America’s most renowned Christian Music Awards, the Doves, announced that both the Song Of The Year and the Worship Song Of The Year awards had gone to 'Reckless Love'.
The song, written by Caleb Culver, Cory Asbury and Ron Jackson, first became popular when a live video of Bethel Music singer Steffany Gretzinger, leading the song in a Bethel Church worship service in Redding, California, went on to get over six million views on YouTube.
By the time its co-composer Cory Asbury released a digital single of the song it was already a world-wide hit being sung in churches around the world.
With huge Christian radio airplay, the song went on to be number one on America’s Hot Christian Songs chart for 18 weeks and Asbury’s subsequent ‘Reckless Love’ album has been a major hit for Asbury and Bethel Music. But the lyric of the modern worship hit has brought forth criticism in some church circles.
Reckless is not an accurate way to describe God or God’s love.
Pentecostal theologian Andrew K Gabriel has written in Relevant magazine that “Reckless is not an accurate way to describe God or God’s love.” In response to the criticism Asbury, on a Story behind The Song YouTube video, explained what his song is endeavouring to communicate.
"We're not saying that God himself is reckless, he's not crazy. We are, however, saying that the way he loves is, in many regards, quite so. But what I mean is this: he's utterly unconcerned with the consequences of his own actions with regard to His own safety, comfort, and well-being. He doesn't wonder what he'll gain or lose by putting himself on the line, he simply puts himself out there on the off-chance that you and I might look back at him and give him that love in return."
The song demonstrates the love of God towards his people.
'Reckless love' draws on the 'Parable of the Lost Sheep' in the Bible. It is about a shepherd that leaves his flock of ninety-nine sheep to look for his one sheep that got lost. The parable demonstrates the love of God towards his people, which ties in well with the song's theme of the reckless love of God.
Despite the theological controversy, one thing seems certain, 'Reckless Love' is continuing to impact church-goers around the world.
Now Australian electronic trio Verses have released a re-imaged version of the song.
We love the song and the message that it carries.
Said Verses’ main songwriter Luke O’Dea on The Christian Beat, “We love the song and the message that it carries so much that we wanted to make a version that appealed to the pop/electronic scene and that was more accessible for the younger listener.”