reading

reading 4 books right now. quite slowly. (see "Recent Reads" list always to the right of my blog posts.)

 

Turning Pages

So... I've never really liked to read. As a kid, I pretended to love reading because that was what smart people were supposed to love, and reading was a sure, quick way to impress teachers. And, I guess I sort of enjoyed it for a few years. But, as I got older, I learned to despise it.

I have always enjoyed a good story. So, if school required that I read, I read. And, usually, I liked what I read. It's the act of reading itself that has never appealed to me. Sitting in one place, staring at one page or set of pages, for a long time. Maybe that's it: it takes a long time. I am not a fast reader. Reading comprehension has never been my thing. I get bored staring at the same few paragraphs until I understand what they say.

A few months ago, all that changed. I LOVE reading. I cannot put down a book. An e-book, that is. The option of reading on my phone has absolutely changed my life. I love my Kindle App. I cannot explain the phenomenon. I do not understand it myself. But, I like it. I have turned a new page in life, and I finally am who I always wanted to be: a reader. It's pretty cool.

So, when you look at that list to the left of my 'Recent Reads,' be impressed. I am.
-mo

Love Wins

I just finished reading Rob Bell's controversial book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. I read some stuff about the book before I read the book itself, and I was under the impression that I was supposed to disagree with him. Not only that, but I should now be proclaiming him a heretic.

In actuality, while he and I do not seem to see eye-to-eye on every point of this book, overall, I cannot disagree with him. As I wrote several posts ago, I do believe in the all-transcendent LOVE of Jesus. In contrast to what Bell seems to write, I do believe hell is a literal location reserved for those who have yet to accept this love. But, I cannot reject the notion that God's love is big enough, eternal enough, eventually to rescue all from hell.

This is by no means a universalist argument. The Bible clearly makes the case that no one deserves God's love and that Jesus is the only way to forgiveness and salvation. But, as a Christ-follower, as one who understands the significance of living freely forgiven and transformed by God's grace, should I not rejoice at the thought that all will one day - in this age or in the age to come - experience this same freedom, forgiveness, and transformation through Christ?! No one will get there without Jesus, but, if everyone, of his/her own freewill chooses life through Jesus Christ, HALLELUJAH! PRAISE GOD! AMEN. Let it be.

Finally, I really love Bell's depiction of salvation as accepting God's story for our lives, abandoning our own. Is that not what true confession, repentance, submission (three steps that pretty well sum up the Sunday school definition of salvation) are: to agree with God about who we are and who He is? To accept God's story. Beautiful.

-mo