The book Love Wins by Rob Bell has stirred up quite the conversation lately. We got to talking about it yesterday with a couple friends who hadn’t read it and I’ve been thinking about it all day. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It changed my perceptions of the world drastically.
These are some thoughts on faith but I hope even if you don’t agree with me on faith that you’ll read and hear me out…
A few weeks ago I received one of the biggest complements I’ve ever been given. It was an echo of what God’s really convicted me on in the last few years. I had a friend tell me that she’s not a Christian but I was the first one she’d met that made Christianity look appealing to her. No bashing, no judging, just love. She said she respected that I care about people no matter what they are “like” and if she was going to become a Christian she’d want “that kind of faith.”
Christians have done a really crappy job representing Christ. In the past few years I’ve found myself with more non-Christian friends than Christian ones and I’ve found it to be even more true. I have seen more love and Christ-like behavior from people who claim to not know Him in the last few years than I have from Christians…
As I sat across the table from my friend I was floored with gratitude because it was the first time someone had reflected to me that I was showing them a Christ-like love. I was sad later in the day as I thought about how I used to act. I used to do a really crappy job representing Christ too. One of *those* Christians that could give you a long list of what you’re “supposed” to do and not do, one that would tell you all the things wrong in this world and all the people God would ignore. One that treated a good friend of mine like dirt because of a huge shift in my friend’s faith. Honestly I was a person I didn’t even recognize as myself because never ever did I believe this to be true in my heart. I was trying to fit the mold of what I thought I should be.
The Christ I know hung out with people that the “religious” people said to ignore, he loved them like crazy and welcomed them. He forgave them and encouraged them to live a new life. And He tells us to do the same thing. No where in the Scriptures does it tell us that we should be judging people or dictating their lives. You know what we are told to do? Love God and Love Others.
My Senior year of college I decided to shake off what I thought I “should” believe and embrace what my heart led me towards (I’m still not doing as good of a job as I’d like) and I felt such freedom.
Freedom to simply love and not worry about the rest. To show Christ and all the grace, mercy, joy, passion, excitement, FREEDOM that comes from knowing that He loves us like crazy and will never leave us alone.
Which leaves us with just one question…. If we preach that God is this amazing loving God who is totally crazy about every single one of His children (even if they aren’t crazy about him)….
What if, in the end, LOVE ultimately wins?
I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer for sure until He returns or calls us home but it’s a question worth thinking about for each and every one of us…. and worth reflecting in our lives. If we live where love wins, and stop yelling off soapboxes about what’s going to send people to hell, if we get out of the bubbles we get stuck in and cling to the hope that our love will win… maybe Christians can do a better job representing Christ. While we let Christ take care of changing hearts.
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