Love Wins Part 13

Before we could be good enough or right enough, before we could even believe the right things.

Forgiveness is unilateral.

G.o.d isn't waiting for us to get it together, to clean up, shape up, get up- G.o.d has already done it.

As it's written in 2 Corinthians 5: "G.o.d was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them."

In 2 Timothy 1 it says, "G.o.d . . . has saved us . . . not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace."

In Romans 5 we're told, "At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the unG.o.dly."

And in t.i.tus 3 it's written, "When the kindness and love of G.o.d our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy."

Not because of anything we've done.

When we were still powerless.

Because of his mercy.

We're saved in our death, and in our life.

In our release of the ego, and in our clinging to it.

In our smallness, and in our bigness.

Jesus meets and redeems us in all the ways we have it together and in all the ways we don't, in all the times we proudly display for the world our goodness, greatness, and rightness, and in all of the ways we fall flat on our faces.

It's only when you lose your life that you can find it, Jesus says.

The only thing left to do is trust.

Everybody is already at the party.

Heaven and h.e.l.l, here, now, around us, upon us, within us.

___________________.

Whose version of her story will that woman handing me that piece of paper trust? All of the men who told her she was nothing, who hit her and abused her, who abandoned her and despised her? Or will she trust another story about herself, the one in which she is loved, valued, forgiven, pure, and beautiful?

If you were sitting with me on that stage on a Sunday morning, holding that piece of paper in your hand she'd just handed you, I know how you'd respond.

You'd tell her another story, a better one.

Of course.

Now, turn that around.

Because we all have a bit of her in us, we hand G.o.d our piece of paper.

And we listen, while we're told a better story.

Because the good news is better than that.

Chapter 8.

The End Is Here And so we arrive at the last chapter. The end is here. We've explored a fairly vast expanse of topics, from heaven and h.e.l.l to G.o.d, Jesus, joy, violence, and the good news that is better than that, among other things.

A story, then, to begin the ending.

One night when I was in elementary school, I said a prayer kneeling beside my bed in my room in the farmhouse we lived in on Dobie Road in Okemos, Michigan. With my parents on either side of me, I invited Jesus into my heart. I told G.o.d that I believed that I was a sinner and that Jesus came to save me and I wanted to be a Christian.

I still remember that prayer.

It did something to me.

Something in in me. me.

In an innocent grade school kind of way, I believed that G.o.d loved me and that Jesus came to show me that love and that I was being invited to accept that love.

Now I am well aware of how shaped I was by my environment, how young and naive I was, and how easy it is to discount emotional religious experiences. With very little effort a person can deconstruct an experience like that by pointing out all of the other things going on in that prayer, like the desire to please one's parents and the power of religion to shape a child. But however helpful that may be, it can easily miss the one thing that can't be denied: What happened that night was real. It meant something significant then and it continues to have profound significance for me. That prayer was a defining moment in my life.

I tell you that story because I believe that the indestructible love of G.o.d is an unfolding, dynamic reality and that every single one of us is endlessly being invited to trust, accept, believe, embrace, and experience it. Whatever words you find helpful for describing this act of trust, Jesus invites us to say yes to this love of G.o.d, again and again and again.

As we experience this love, there is a temptation at times to become hostile to our earlier understandings, feeling embarra.s.sed that we were so "simple" or "naive," or "brainwashed" or whatever terms arise when we haven't come to terms with our own story. These past understandings aren't to be denied or dismissed; they're to be embraced. Those experiences belong. Love demands that they belong. That's where we were at that point in our life and G.o.d met us there. Those moments were necessary for us to arrive here, at this place at this time, as we are. Love frees us to embrace all of our history, the history in which all things are being made new.

Our invitation, the one that is offered to us with each and every breath, is to trust that we are loved and that a new word has been spoken about us, a new story is being told about us.

Now, that word "trust," that is a rare, difficult word.

Cynicism we know, and skepticism we're familiar with. We know how to a.n.a.lyze and pick apart and point out inconsistencies. We're good at it. We've all been burned, promised any number of things only to be let down. And so over time we get our guard up, we don't easily believe anything and trust can become like a foreign tongue, a language we used to speak but now we find ourselves out of practice.

Jesus invites us to trust that the love we fear is too good to be true is actually good enough to be true. It's written in one of John's letters in the scriptures that "what we will be has not yet been made known." Jesus invites us to become, become, to be drawn into this love as it shapes us and forms us and takes over every square inch of our lives. Jesus calls us to repent, to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently. to be drawn into this love as it shapes us and forms us and takes over every square inch of our lives. Jesus calls us to repent, to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently.

It will require a death, a humbling, a leaving behind of the old mind, and at that same time it will require an opening up, loosening our hold, and letting go, so that we can receive, expand, find, hear, see, and enjoy.

This invitation to trust asks for nothing more than this moment, and yet it is infinitely urgent. Jesus told a number of stories about this urgency in which things did not turn out well for the people involved. One man buries the treasure he's been entrusted with instead of doing something with it and as a result he's "thrown outside into the darkness." Five foolish wedding attendants are unprepared for the late arrival of the groom and they end up turned away from the wedding with the chilling words "Truly I tell you, I don't know you." Goats are sent "away" to a different place than the sheep, tenants of a vineyard have it taken from them, and weeds that grew alongside wheat are eventually harvested and "tied in bundles to be burned."

These are strong, shocking images of judgment and separation in which people miss out on rewards and celebrations and opportunities. Jesus tells these stories to wake us up to the timeless truth that history moves forward, not backward or sideways. Time does not repeat itself. Neither does life. While we continually find grace waiting to pick us up off the ground after we have fallen, there are realities to our choices. While we may get other opportunities, we won't get the one right in front of us again. That specific moment will pa.s.s and we will not see it again. It comes, it's here, it goes, and then it's gone. Jesus reminds us in a number of ways that it is vitally important we take our choices here and now as seriously as we possibly can because they matter more than we can begin to imagine.

Whatever you've been told about the end- the end of your life, the end of time, the end of the world- Jesus pa.s.sionately urges us to live like the end is here, now, today.

Love is what G.o.d is, love is why Jesus came, and love is why he continues to come, year after year to person after person.

Love is why I've written this book, and love is what I want to leave you with.

May you experience this vast, expansive, infinite, indestructible love that has been yours all along.

May you discover that this love is as wide as the sky and as small as the cracks in your heart no one else knows about.

And may you know, deep in your bones, that loves wins.

Further Reading On Jesus in every square inch of creation, see Robert Farrar Capon's The Mystery of Christ The Mystery of Christ On h.e.l.l, see C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce The Great Divorce On the cross, see Mark Baker's Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross On the two sons in the story Jesus tells, see Timothy Keller's The Prodigal G.o.d The Prodigal G.o.d On growth and change and all that, see Richard Rohr's The Naked Now The Naked Now and and Everything Belongs Everything Belongs On who and what G.o.d is, see Huston Smith's The Soul of Christianity The Soul of Christianity On resurrection and new creation, see N. T. Wright's book Surprised by Hope Surprised by Hope For more on: * getting people clean water, go to 20liters.org and charitywater.org* justice and human rights, go to ijm.org* nuclear weapons and the pressing need to have fewer of them, go to twofuturesproject.org* microfinance and working for measurable change among the most oppressed and forgotten, go to worldrelief.org or call their global headquarters in Baltimore and ask to speak to Don Golden. He'll be thrilled.

Acknowledgments.

A thousand thanks to: Erwin McMa.n.u.s for the wise counsel in that Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles in the summer of 2005 Jon Bell and Brian Mucci for insisting on the car ride home from Chicago that now is the time Rob Strong for twenty years of saying exactly what I needed to hear Jim Olsson for that conversation on the bus Dr. Tandy Champion, Shane Hipps, Brad Gray, Mark Baas, Don Golden, Matt Krick, Dr. Dave and Linda Livermore, Lucy Russo, Gabor George Burt, and those I can't recall at this time who read a draft along the way and gave much needed perspective and feedback Alex and Tom for listening to me read an early draft out loud Zach Lind for saying "wrecking ball" under his breath several times in a row all the Bell, Childress, and Olsson clans for their unflagging love and support, and especially to my parents, Rob and Helen, for suggesting when I was in high school that I read C. S. Lewis My sister, Ruth Olsson, for the conversation about the painting Chris Ferebee for keeping his cool for ten years Mickey Maudlin for bringing the editor love, draft after draft after draft after draft Mark Tauber, Claudia Boutote, Laina Adler, Michele Wetherbee, Mandy Chahal, Katy Renz, Lisa Zuniga, and all of the fine folks at HarperOne in San Francisco for believing in this book from day one Mike Volkema for telling me that story about the chair everybody at Mars Hill, how would I ever begin to thank you for all you've given me?

Kristen. Are you free Thursday night?

About the Author.

ROB BELL is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of the bestselling is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is the author of the bestselling Velvet Elvis, s.e.x G.o.d, Jesus Wants to Save Christians Velvet Elvis, s.e.x G.o.d, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Drops Like Stars Drops Like Stars. A graduate of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, Bell speaks to large crowds around the world and has appeared in a pioneering series of short films called NOOMA. He and his wife, Kristen, have three children.

Visit the author online at www.robbell.com.

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