Some Thoughts

While going through the afore-mentioned stacks of old binders and things, I found some writing I had done on… well, everything. Here are some of the better snippets.

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Most profound among my discoveries was the simple realization that God is Love– wherever love is present, there also is He. It is both complex and basic. Without understanding this principle even in some inexplicable, mysterious way (it is a Mystery of God) all theistic thought will perish. It is absolutely imperative to know that love truly conquers all.

This is why I believe in the theory of the Anonymous Christian [by Karl Rahner], which holds that God is not always called “God” or “Jesus” or “Christ” but that God is Spirit and is found even amongst atheists. In my mind, anyone who shows the fruits of the Spirit (love, kindness, charity, hope, etc.) is in blessed unity with my Father’s Holy Spirit. As it says in I John: “We love because he first loved us.” John also says that anyone who claims to love God but hates his brother is a liar.

But what is the Spirit of God? Where is it? We already know it is with those who love– that it is the embodiment of agape (I John 4:8, I Cor. 13). But it’s also in the world, in the trees and in the way the birds sing and the wind blows across your skin. Look at the way the ancients worshiped nature. Look at the way the transcendentalists lived with the trees and animals to better commune with God. Hearken back to Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth and said that it was “good.” Try to count the stars and remember that God has named every one of them.

But he’s also in the silence. In the particles of air around you. In the quiescence of meditation. In the moments where your mind falls off track and all you can do is stare blankly… which you find strangely fulfilling.

And he’s in the loud chaos of laughter. The busy movement of the city. The rushing cacophony of your racing, fleeting thoughts. Though in these rushes, people rarely notice his presence.

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I don’t quite know what the grander scheme is… I do know that while the point of life isn’t contentedness, the master plot does end there. The whole of Creation is a love story composed by the greatest Author in the universe and the ending is a happy one. Hence the word gospel– good news.

… The truth is, for every act of love, there is victory in heaven. And I’ve found that the kinder, more patient and more loving I am with those around me, the greater contentedness I’ve felt in my own life. On the other hand, when I am selfish and angry… I am the more miserable. There is no triumph in self-centered bitterness. You can only serve yourself by serving others. These are not truths for believers and Christians only, they’re true for everyone. The golden rule is found in one form or another in every belief system across the globe.

So, as I said, in the end the point isn’t your own personal contentedness: the point is the triumph of love. Contentedness is only a by-product. Our task is to show love not only to the ones who deserve it but also to the low, vile, most unworthy people on the planet. And not with arrogant self-righteousness, but with genuine kindness and compassion. We must love everyone– to deny this is foolishness. To fail in this is human. And to keep trying is saintly.

Let Freedom Ring

Does anyone really know what freedom is anymore?

We say it’s the defining factor of this nation and we send our young men off to fight and die for it. We seem to think it’s our right to defile God’s creation. Freedom is our right to stretch out our wallets with more cash than we need. Freedom is our right to stretch out our bodies with all the Big Macs our stomachs can carry. Freedom is our right to keep Jesus in the grave and in the heavens; it’s much too uncomfortable to let him roam the earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is too difficult a path.

The truth is that as long as we ignore Jesus, we enslave ourselves further in the way of the world. Like Atlas of old, we carry the weight of the globe upon our shoulders.

As I watch the people of the earth commit this suicidal love affair with power and greed, my heart breaks. How did we get everything so wrong? Our entire society is completely backwards from the way it was intended. Our church fathers turn over in their graves.

When did we start making silver collection plates? And five-foot gold crosses for our altars? And Roman columns to hold up our expensive buildings? Velvet red carpets?

With every ornate luxury we add to a church, we try to smother God– in a place he’s already said is not his home! Our God is wild; he cannot be contained, not in a church building, not in a group of people. He is everywhere, in all things.

The gospel is no longer personal. It is a mustard seed planted within a human soul that grows quickly and runs rampant across the earth. It affects all parts of life: personal, spiritual, political, economic, social. It heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, loves the hated and loveless. It is everything to all people.

-Amanda

Evangelion

“If the gospel isn’t good news for everybody, then it isn’t good news for anybody.”

–Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis

People usually ask me, if all people will be saved, what’s the point of life? I answered this question a few entries ago by turning it on its head. But I do want to verify that, while the reconciliation of all things is beautiful, wonderful news, there is more to the gospel.

It starts with a movement of love– yes, the crucifixion, our paschal lamb, but more, even, than that. Christ has moved in the Christian’s life. He has shown such great love not only in his sacrifice but in our day to day lives.

This movement, this love buries itself within us and begins to grow, to spread, to burst forth from our very essence. And we’re alive, as if for the first time. And it’s all we can do to love others the way God has loved us.

See, we are not moved because we’re saved from death; we’re moved because He LOVES us. And this love is powerful, primal, essential, all-consuming, everlasting. It is the reason for existence. It is God Himself.

And the most incredible part of this love is that it’s contagious. When we love others, the process begins again. One domino knocks over the next and the next. A snowball rolls down a hill and grows and grows. There is no over-coming it; it’s like a wildfire burning through a pile of brush.

The biggest, grandest part of the gospel is happening right now. It is not the salvation of all, but how all are saved. Not the promise itself, but the fulfilling of the promise. Not the end, but the means. The kingdom of God is at hand.