Every spring, for about a two week period, there are various traveling preachers that come and spew hatred and hellfire as they stand in the most beautiful area of campus, where there is a lot of foot-traffic and lots of wary ears to hear. It's an interesting juxtaposition, looking at the beauty of this world, the intense green of the trees and grass, the constant smell of lilac all over the greens, that was lovingly made by a God who loves us enough to make all that for us, being pocked with people shouting about a fictional god of hate and smite. It's a shame that those shouting can't point to that as proof of His love instead of point to a few verses in the Bible out of context proving that everyone is going to burn in hell.
Why did Jesus die? As I recall, in John is says 'For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever belives in him shall NOT perish but have ETERNAL life.' (Emphasis added by me). Thats is such a joyful message! In my experience, people don't respond to positively to being personally insulted, being threatened, being looked at as less-then-human, when in reality, God IS Love (1 John 4:16), there is hope, and we are all equals because we are all loved children of God who have equally messed-up hearts. There is only one judge (James 4:12); there is only One who is perfect. It's the way it is.
My heart is broken for those who shout hatred because they are missing an integral important part of Jesus' message; that there is an ultimate love that can encompass your heart until there are internal changes, one of which is being able to see other as God sees them, as He created them, with Love, among other things. There is a peace that cannot be described, there is Joy and so many other beautiful words that burst open in your heart when you truly live for that Love.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to judge them. I admire their gumption. Being able to share is an important part of living this Love, but it needs to come from a place of openness and vulnerability and it needs to come without judgement, and should be a natural flow of everyday life, personality, and relations. That is what I have found anyway.
In Velvet Elvis, Bell compares Christian spirituality to a trampoline. He says there are people who want to make it into a brick-world, 'brikianity', solid walls, enclosed, cut-off, etc...and that needs defending when attacked. He talks about how Christian spirituality needs to be more like a trampoline, bending and stretching to fit to the current reality, and then he goes on to say that
"...you rarely defend a trampoline. You invite people to jump on it with you. I am far more interested in jumping than I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better. You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you."
Talking about beliefs is important, but it needs to spawn out of a place of love and a desire for others to experience what you experience. Its like the post I posted last year by David Crowder, if you have some time, please look it over, it is quite fabulous. 'O Praise Him'
I have come to appreciate when the traveling preachers come. I find that it is much easier to talk to people about the real way Jesus lived because everyone knows that what these people shout is not reality. I pray that, one day, I can have the gumption these preachers do, and I pray that the real peace of God floods over their hearts and opens their eyes to a life of love that is so liberating.
"And the, when we're broken and helpless as babies once again, we find ourselves being tenderly held and released into a new softness and gentleness and trust, where we can be free and loving once more, and truly, resiliently strong, no longer rigid. Paradoxically, the more we allow our walls to be broken, the more we find how little we really needed them. The more we die, the more alive we become. The more we trust, the less reason we have to be fearful."
Molly Wolf
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