experiencing the Love

"When you've experienced the resurrected Jesus, the mystery hidden in the fabric of creation, you can't help but talk about him. You've tapped into the joy that fills the entire universe, and so naturally you want others to meet this God. This is a God worth telling people about.

This is the problem with some Gods - you don't know if they're good, so why tell others a story that isn't working for you?

Witnessing, evangelizing, sharing your faith - when you realize that God has retold your story, you are free to passionately, urgently, compellingly tell the story because you've stepped into a whole new life and you're moved and inspired to share it. When your God is love, and you have experienced this love in flesh and blood, here and now, then you are free from guilt and fear and the terrifying, haunting, ominous voice that whispers over your shoulder, 'You're not doing enough.' The voice that insists God is, in the end, a slave driver.

Have nothing to do with that God."

-Rob Bell, "Love Wins"

I stumbled through this section of Rob Bell's newest book (Love Wins) tonight and something about these words caught my heart off guard. Questions began to flood my mind, such as, "Thomas, have you really experienced the love that was embodied in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? If so, why aren't you sharing more, or doing more, or experiencing more? You know God is good, yes? Really? You really do? Then why don't your thoughts reflect even a portion of that goodness?"

I don't doubt Jesus Christ's redeeming, saving, rescuing, sacrificial love, nor do I doubt God's goodness. But the desire for, for lack of a better phrase, a "God experience" is urgently knocking on my heart's door. And not just a personal encounter, but a corporate encounter. The desire to praise and petition with my brothers and sisters has practically overwhelmed me sitting here on the other side of this computer screen.

I pray against "busyness" for the sake of staying busy and against all distractions that tend to follow. I pray for a new, yet profoundly old experience and encounter of God the Father, personally and corporately. I pray against complacency and apathy because I do care and I am only worthy because You've breathed into my lungs. Abba Father; I belong to You.

in love and search for authenticity,

---thomas