From entry # 11: Chased by Love (Please Don't Run Too Fast)
I had been invited to speak to a group of Muslims, specifically about the history of Christianity...I had been describing to them my own sense of disappointment with and even disdain of the religion of Christianity. They all quickly agreed that as a religion, there were deep problems and inconsistencies between beliefs and practices.But eventually, they wanted to know what exactly was the meaning behind the coming of Jesus.
Somewhat apprehensively I began my best effort to translate back into a Middle Eastern context the story of Jesus (after all, this was Jesus's home turf) and more specifically, why it would be necessary for God to become human. This from my vantage point, was the story of God. It's a love story, by the way.
"I once met a girl called Kim."
My translator looked at me confused. I'm sure he was wracking his brain, trying to remember some biblical character named Kim. He stopped translating and just looked at me. I encouraged him to simply translate.
"I once met a girl called Kim, and I fell in love."I continued, "I pursued her with my love and pursued her with my love until I felt my love had captured her heart. So I asked her to be my wife, and she said no."
I could feel their empathy, if not their pity.
"I was unrelenting and asked her again, pursuing her with my love, and I pursued her with my love until she said yes."
There was huge relief throughout the entire room.
I went on, "I did not send my brother, nor did I send a friend. For in the issues of love, you must go yourself."This is the story of God: he pursued you with his love and pursues you with his love, and you have perhaps not said yes. And even if you reject his love, he pursues you ever still. It was not enough to send an angel or a prophet or any other, for in issues of love, you must go yourself. And so God has come.
This is the story of Jesus, that God has walked among us and he pursues us with his love. He is very familiar with rejection but is undeterred. And he is here even now, still pursuing you with his love."
Every human being longs for love. The possibility that God is love is an almost overwhelming prospect.In that moment the story of Jesus was not about who is right and who is wrong, what God's name is and who his prophet is, but what exactly God's motivation toward humanity is. If the message that God wants to get across to us is just about getting our beliefs right, then he didn't need to come himself. If God's entire intent was to clarify right from wrong, no personal visitation was necessary. If the ultimate end was simply to overwhelm us with the miraculous so that we would finally believe, then even God taking on flesh and blood and walking among us was far from necessary.
There is only one reason for God to come himself, because in the issues of love, you just can't have someone else to stand in for you.Religion exists not because God loves too little, but because we need love so much. In the end all religions misrepresent God. They either dictate requirements for love or simply become a requiem for love. I think many of us have rightly given up on God on this basis alone. We've been told that God is a reluctant lover and that his standards must be met before there can be any talk of love. This is lunacy. Love exists because God is love.
Our souls will never find satisfaction until our hearts have found this love that we so desperately yearn for.God is not passive, for love is never passive, but always passionate, and passion always leads to action.
Erwin Raphael McManus, "Soul Cravings". Available from Life bookstore.
Crimson Bisque
Seconded by her friends
Hooked after a few blogs
Doomed to express herself
every now and then
Crimson: red
Bisque: White unglazed porcelein
Crimson bisque:
A little rough around the edges,
rather fragile and stained red by the
change Jesus death and his blood
has brought about in my life
