As I mentioned before, today was a snow day – no school for
this teacher – but I still managed to put in around 4 hours of work in a local
coffee shop before heading back home in the DEEP (1 inch high J) snow. Because I wanted to relax a bit, I watched Joe
versus the Volcano (I forgot how ridiculous it was!), and finished reading Eli
by Bill Myers and Sisterchicks Down Under! by Robin Jones Gunn.
(Background info: You
see, I had recently visited Mr. K’s bookstore and stocked up on books from
different authors. Robin Jones Gunn happens
to be an author I love and learn a lot from – but wasn’t sure I wanted to read
her Sisterchick books yet. They’re about
women in their 40’s who go off on adventures…and I was thinking…maybe I should
wait another 20 years so I can relate.
But I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see how much I have laughed and
gleaned from the wisdom shared in those books.)
ANYWAY. (This may be
long…I haven’t talked to many people today on this snow day…and I have a lot of
words left in me….)
At the end of my watching and reading today, I started writing
in my journal…and was floored by the theme I saw running through today.
The theme was: The
God of the universe loves me…like that?
1. Devotions in Deuteronomy: This morning I read Deuteronomy 7:6-9 “For
you are a people holy to the LORD your God.
The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the
face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you
and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were
the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you…Know
therefore that the LORD your God is God, he is the faithful God…”
2. The
realization that God has no reason to love Israel and no reason to love me (yet
he does) was deepened when I read a quote I wrote in my journal yesterday. Stephen Prothero, a religious studies
professor at Boston University, wrote a sad but true description of
Christianity today: “In the modern west there is so much cheap chatter about befriending
God that the prospect of fearing God seems almost illicit” (God is Not
One, p. 43). Ooh. When did we start treating the Creator of
the Universe like a buddy instead of God?
Aren’t we too flippant sometimes?
And yet, the conundrum is that this God…who is Almighty and Powerful and
deserving of fear…He loves us! And wants
to talk to us!
3. Sisterchicks
Down Under (RJ Gunn): The verse
that supplied a running theme for one of the characters in this book was
Ephesians 5:2. In the paraphrase, the
Message, the verse is restated like this:
“Mostly what God does is love
you. Keep company with him and learn
a life of love. Observe how Christ loved
us. His
love was not cautious but extravagant.
He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything
of himself to us. Love like that.”
4. Eli
(Bill Myers): I don’t know what I
was expecting when I started reading this book.
Myers uses this fiction book to retell what the story of Jesus might
have looked like if it was set in modern day America. It’s interesting to think about how Jesus (represented
as Eli in this book) would respond to churches and religious groups, to
druggies and porn stars, and even to the media in the modern day. And it made me think…if Jesus were here right
now…what might he do that I wouldn’t approve of? I need to spend more time with Him so I would
know what He would do – since He wants to work through me. But, believe it or not, that’s not what truly
hit me about this book. What struck me
was the fact that throughout this 300+ page novel, I’d grown attached to
Eli. I like him. He is such a good guy – full of wisdom and
hard truth for those around him. But, oh
so full of love. And so…when Eli is
killed…my heart hurt. (AND I’M READING
FICTION!!!! But I was ashamed to realize
that my heart was hurting more over Eli’s death than it hurts on Sundays when I
go to church to take bread and wine and remember Jesus’ death. Why?
Because I don’t take the time to really think about how much the God of
the universe went through to love us.
****I know that the point of this book is to help us relook at Jesus’
sacrifice…I just realized today how much I didn’t realize…if that makes
sense****) In the book, Eli is beaten by
a mob, has a noose put around his neck, is stripped of his clothes and hangs on
a tree. The crowd makes fun of him; they
laugh at him and are absolutely brutal to an innocent man. And this is how Myers describes it: “Justice
and mercy. Two opposite truths coming
together in one man, in one act of
unfathomable love….What Eli was undergoing was the punishment for
Conrad’s [main character] own failures.
Failures for which he would never have to suffer. Justice was being served. Pure, undefiled, holy justice…and with it,
infinite, loving mercy. Together. At the
same time. In one man.” (p. 325-326).
Just like Jesus. Only Jesus went
through more. Because of my sins.
5. Sometimes
I forget how much Jesus went through.
And I think about how crazy it is that the ones who God created
crucified Him. How ungrateful. How
wrong. And yet our God didn’t stay
dead. He conquered death! That knowledge should CHANGE my world. I need to wake up to that fact and be
thankful each and every day. And this is
where Joe versus the Volcano comes in. (You were wondering…I know J). Meg Ryan, as Patricia, makes a comment to Joe
(Tom Hanks) while they are floating in the ocean – and I liked it so much I had
to pause the movie and replay it to write it down. She says:
a.
“My
father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see,
everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake – and they live
in a state of constant, total amazement.”
How do all of these random things fit together?
1.
God loves those who don’t deserve it. (Deuteronomy 7)
2.
Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but EXTRAVAGANT. (Ephesians 5)
3.
In fact, if we look again at the brutal murder
of Jesus, and we consider His unfathomable love on the cross – the place where
justice and mercy meet…
4.
WE SHOULD LIVE IN A STATE OF CONSTANT, TOTAL
AMAZEMENT.
I admit. I’m amazed
that God used all these random things today to teach me this lesson. But I hope that every day I become more and
more AMAZED at the love of my Savior on the cross.
And I hope that constant amazement becomes a theme in my
life. J
Excellent! Mr. Rez shared the same Deuteronomy verses on Sunday, very powerful. Thanks so much for these beautiful thoughts.
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