Monday, March 21, 2011

A question posed to Rob Bell, that’s not about his book

MSNBC handed Rob Bell [pastor, author, speaker in the NOOMA videos] the question of
“Is God all powerful, & unfeeling/caring? Or… Is He caring, empathetic, yet unable to fix everything?”
This has everything to do with Japan & Libya, yet nothing to do with his newest book. I guess I would answer that with a question of my own. Do you believe Rob Bell is God? If not, why are you asking him a question that only God can answer? Let me quickly be clear here, I’m not mad that the question is being asked. Rather, I’m perplexed that the interviewer cannot ask God himself. God is rather used to people being angry/frustrated/confused with Him, & vocalizing/praying about it to God’s face. [See the book of Psalms] I cannot ask a human to answer a question that I’m really asking God. God knows each human better than any group of humans understand our entire species. I understand that the interviewer felt like Mr. Bell was side stepping the question. However, I cannot speak for another human. So it stands to reason that I cannot answer for God, whom I have a very primitive, rudimentary understanding of. I accept that there are a great many things about God for which, if He came here, sat on my futon [next to my pc], & explained, at great length, His reasons for why some things are the way they are, I’d simply reply: “huh? I don’t think I get it”. And, since He’d be explaining it inside of space & time, I might be a quite older individual by the time He was finished. Which, by the way, may be a reason why He never explained it to me in the first place. There are many questions that are posed by people who don’t know God, & cannot wrap their mind around such a being. What, I believe, is one of the silliest is: “can God make a rock that God cannot lift?” regardless of your answer, He is not omnipotent. …my first question, if you were omnipotent, would you bother? Does making a rock, solely to prove you cannot lift it, make a good story? Ah, no. It is brief, but no.
Now, being the smart aleck that I am: Yes, God can make a rock that God cannot lift, yet be able to lift it.
[this, of course, goes against the “do not test the Lord your God” verse]
How?!?! You ask. Simple. God, the father, makes a rock. Jesus, God the son, cannot lift it. Jesus prays to the father, & the rock is lifted. [either by Jesus, or by The Father. Or, perhaps it is “unmade” & thus “lifted”]
So, I can think…does that matter? Depends a great deal on what I think about…& what I do after thinking it. What you have is not nearly as important as what you do with it. [or, perhaps better still, what you have is not as important as what you allow God to do with it. …it is much easier to make this statement than to live it]

It is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge,
and another to tread the path that leads to it.
-St. Augustine III

Do I like Rob Bell? Yes, this isn’t based on time spent together, of course. I like what he’s written, spoke in videos, et al. I have not read Love Wins. I won’t comment on a book I’ve not read. If Mr. Bell & I spoke for a while, on matters of God, & the universe God has artistically fashioned, I imagine we’d have things we whole heartedly agree on. We would also have things that we would not agree on. If Rob Bell agreed with me, on everything in the universe, I would cease to read his books [watch his videos, etc.]. We would have no reason to spend time together. I already live with myself. [which, sometimes, isn’t as much fun as the “brochure” says it is.] Mr. Bell causes me to think. To think in directions that I maybe never thought in before. This would be why I like him. Sometimes, this is the reason I like Living Word. Maybe I always believed what they are saying… yet never thought to say it the way it’s being said.
I do not spend time with pushy people, who want to tell me what to think. I want to learn to think better. [so much could be said on that statement alone] People who threaten violence because you do not believe the way they do, or threaten because you have to “do what they say” or else. I usually pick else. It’s kind of mean, really. Yet, I’m just wired that way. I sometimes have to take time to think, am I just doing this or going this way because a bully doesn’t want me to? Or do I actually have a real reason?
Mr. Bell isn’t perfect. Yes, it takes one to know one, & I am one. [imperfect, that is]
I could go on…& on…&…
Love Wins, perhaps not today, but yes

[I have run out of time on here, so I didn't fix the font issue that shows up half way through this, sorry]

May His grace drip from your fingers,
B

No comments:

Post a Comment