Saturday, August 23, 2014

Love Always Leaves Room for the Other to Decide

If we want isolation, despair, and the right to be our own god, God graciously grants us that option. If we insist on using our God-given power and strength to make the world in our own image, God allows us that freedom; we have the kind of license to do that. if we want nothing to do with light, hope, love, grace & peace, God respects that desire on our part, and we are given a life free from any of those realities. the ore we want nothing to do with all God is, the more distance and space are created, if we want nothing to do with love, we are given a reality free from love.

If, however, we crave light, we're drawn to truth, we're desperate for grace, we've come to the end of our plots & schemes and we want someone else's path, God gave us what we want.
If we have this sense  that we've wandered far from home, and we want to return, God is there, standing in the driveway, arms open, ready to invite us in.
If we thirst for shalom,and we long for the peace that transcends all understanding, God doesn't just give, they're poured out on us, lavished, heaped, until we're overwhelmed. It's like a feast where the food and wine do not run out.

These desires can start with the planting of an infinitesimally small seed deep in our heart, or a yearning for a better, or a gnawing sense that we're missing out, or an awareness that beyond the routine and grind of life there's something more, or the quiet hunch that this isn't all there is. It often has its birth in the most unexpected ways, arising out of our need for something we know we do not have, for someone we know we are not.

And to that, that impulse, craving, yearning longing, desire - God say yes. Yes, there is water for that thirst, food for that hunger, light for that darkness, relief for that burden. If we want hell, if we want heaven, they are ours. that's ho love works, It can't be forces, manipulated, or coerced. it always leaves room for the other to decide.

God says yes, we can have what we want, because love wins.

Rob Bell, [Love Wins]