Monday, May 17, 2010

The smackdown

The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody we made up. And, if we made him up, then we are in control. And so in passage after passage, we find God reminding people that he is beyond and bigger and more.-Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis
My latest lunchtime reading material is a book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. I came to know Rob Bell through his video series, Nooma, which our Sunday School class uses occasionally during those Sundays we are in between studies. Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill in Michigan. His videos are spiritually motivating and thought provoking (and they are visually pleasing, too).

Yesterday was a Nooma Sunday in our class. We watched the latest in the series, Whirlwind. In this installment, Bell discusses the seldom asked question, "Why do bad things happen?" He, as a lot of these sorts of studies do, goes to the book of Job for guidance. Of the 11 minutes in the video, 9 minutes are Bell reciting the questions that God asks of Job after Job has questioned God as to why all the bad stuff has happened to him. You know, the sorts of things like, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations?" and "What is the way to the place where lightning is dispersed?" On and on, God points out the length, depth and breadth of his might, power and glory. In our discussions after the video, Steve referred to it as the "smackdown".

Appropriate.

Job's response? He put his hand over his mouth and said no more.

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