Some days we feel like a number, like a machine, like a mere cog in a machine, severed and separated from the depth of things, this day feeling like all others. Other days we come feeling tuned in to the song, fully alive, hyperaware of the God who is all in all. The point of the experience isn’t to create a special space where God is, over and against the rest of life where God isn’t. The power is in the striking ability of this experience to open our eyes all over again (and again and again) to the holiness and sacred nature of all life, from family to friends to neighbours to money and breath and sex and work and play and food and wine.
That’s God in all, bringing together all of our bodies and our minds and our souls and our spirits and all the parts and pieces that make us us, as our eyes are opened in
the good,
the bad,
the ugly,
the beautiful,
the inspiring,
and the
gut-wrenching
to the presence in all of life of the God who is with us,
for us,
and ahead of us.
You are on holy ground wherever you are, and Jesus comes to let us know that the whole world is a temple because we’re temples, all of life is spiritual, all space sacred, all ground holy. He comes to heighten our senses and sharpen our eyes to that which we’ve been surrounded by the whole time; we’re just now beginning to see it.
For Jesus,
it’s never just a job,
a conversation is never just an exchange of words,
a meal is never just the consumption of food,
because
it’s never just
bread
and it’s never just
wine.
I move more slowly than I used to because I don’t want to miss anything.
I find more and more beauty and meaning in everyday, average moments that I would have missed before.
I need fewer answers because I see more.
I find more people more fascinating than ever because I’m more and more used to being surprised by the mystery that a human being is.
I’ve discovered more and more events are less and less about the events themselves and more about me being open to whatever it is that’s going on just below the surface.
Because there’s always something more,
something else,
depth and fullness and life,
right there,
all of it a gift from the God who is with us.
Rob Bell coming out in favour of gay marriage. Nice.
Rob Bell is one of my favourite authors and he’s only gone and written a new book: What We Talk About When We Talk About God.
Great video from Rob Bell on rediscovering wonder.
Rob Bell is one of the world’s 100 most influential people, according to TIME Magazine. He also loves a bit of Luke Leighfield!
If you haven’t heard of Rob Bell, he’s an Evangelical pastor who recently kicked up a storm with his latest book, Love Wins. I went to hear him speak in Southampton a year ago about his last book, Drops Like Stars. At the end of the night I went to get my book signed and realised that I had a copy of Have You Got Heart? in my bag, so I thought I’d give it to him, assuming that he’d probably never get the time to listen to it.
This Tuesday I went to hear him speak about Love Wins in Cheltenham, and when my lovely photographer pal Tom Price went to get his book signed, he got chatting to Rob about how we’d seen him in Southampton the year before. Anyway, it turns out that Rob remembered us, and not only had he listened to my CD, but he proceeded to sing Tom an excerpt of I Won’t Look Back to prove it! Apparently it’s a family favourite and the CD is currently residing in his wife’s car! He said he’d get it back from her when he returned to the US.
If you want to find out more about why Rob Bell is the causing such a stir at the moment, you should read this article entitled Is Hell Dead? on TIME.com. You should also check out Velvet Elvis, arguably Bell’s biggest success to date, and one of my all-time favourite books.
GIDDY FANBOY BLOG OVER!
P.S. Things got weirder when I stopped for a coffee at Membury services on the way home on Tuesday. The guy who served me didn’t say that he recognised me then wrote on my Facebook page saying that he’d just served me, which I saw when I got home. I felt like a superstar on Tuesday.
Really excited about Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins.
“Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re worthy.
Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love.
Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re beautiful.
Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful.
There is a love because, love in order to, love for the purpose of, and then there is love, period. Agape doesn’t need a reason.”
P.120, Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality by Rob Bell.
I just finished reading this book and I really enjoyed it. You can check it out on Amazon.
The video above talks about an amazing college application written by Hugh Gallagher. I first heard about it in Rob Bell’s book, Drops Like Stars, which I just finished reading. Hugh Gallagher is basically a total G and his website can be found here.
