Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About God by Rob Bell

A few weeks ago, I picked up Rob Bell’s latest book, What WeTalk About When We Talk About God. For those unaware, Bell’s credibility in the faith community came under fire from his last book Love Wins and personally, I was curious what he might have to say in his latest book. Would it be a defense of previous writings? Would it be an attempt to win back the favor of his critics? Would it be perceived as an even greater deviation from orthodoxy within the Christian faith?

The book was actually very different indeed. It seemed like a book written to a very wide audience, from the deeply religious to the deeply irreligious. I’m sure it will have its share of critiques, but as I read it, I found it to be an intriguing unpacking of language often used when talking about God, and how two people can quite easily talk right past each other and miss out on common ground and perspective.

The book starts in an interesting place. It starts with a dialogue about subatomic particles and principles of physics that are observable and yet unexplainable. For instance the electron. We rely on the movement of electrons daily. In fact I wouldn’t be able to write this post without borrowing some electrons to power my computer. And yet, the best model for electrons around the nucleus of an atom relies  on a prediction of where the electron might be at any point in time. It’s almost like it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. This is a hard concept to explain or understand, and yet, again, we rely on the movement of electrons to power our devices.

The book moves from multiple examples where people speak past each other when it comes to the subject of spirituality, and then as the book progresses, Bell introduces Jesus in a fresh way to the reader. The book is a very quick read, and I’m sure it will have its share of critics, but after reading it, I would love to introduce it to friends from various faith backgrounds and perspectives as I believe it would be a wonderful starting point for conversations.  I would recommend this book to people who are interested in exploring the subject of spirituality and how many people talk about God in the West.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians

Well, Rob Bell has a new book in print. It’s called Jesus Wants to Save Christians and in what has become a standard for Rob Bell, this book is another compelling argument for thinking deeply about the life of faith.

The book does a great job of tying together themes of exodus, justice, liberation, salvation, and mission in a continuous thread from the old testament to the new testament to today.

Bell challenges western Christians with an interesting comparison between the call of Israel in the old testament, and the call of Christians in the new. So often we are encouraged to invest in our own security rather than investing in changing the lives of others.

I know that many times in my life I can easily find myself concerned about my own personal future and I can get consumed by anxiety and worry. Bell warns that we do not live for ourselves—we live for others, and the moment we stop worrying and begin to trust in the abundant provision of God is the moment when we become most free to be used by Him

I had intended to read the book twice because there were so many quotable nuggets on the pages and I wanted to share them with you. But, time has not been my friend in performing a second read. So you will just have to take my word that it’s a very thought provoking book, and one that will probably unsettle and disturb you. By the way there is also awebsite with a more supplements to the book—pretty wild!

May we all find ourselves challenged and stretched to live more aware of the reality of the Kingdom of God and the call of our great King, Jesus.

Here’s to good books and good conversations, and all things that spur us on to love and good deeds.

Where's the Image?

Right now, I am charging a battery so I can pull photos off my camera. I have much to blog about, but I like to have an image with my blogs. I like taking photos, or posting cool videos for you to watch and hopefully be encouraged or inspired to run more passionately after our good King Jesus.

As I started writing this post, I wanted to encourage you to help out my friend's organization, Nuru International, by following this link and watching the video on the site. After you watch the video, there is a space below the video where you can leave a comment. Over 500,000 people have watched this video on the site, but very few have left comments. Nuru wants to encourage some highly visited websites to post the video, and to generate even more awareness about the issue of extreme poverty and what Nuru is doing to fight it. The more comments that appear, the more interest that will be drawn from some of these other websites. So you can help spread the word about nuru just by leaving a comment--will you do it?

Right after I started writing this post, I realized, I couldn't just stop with that request to help Nuru. There's something more about the title that stirs me, and I hope it will stir you too. "where's the image?" Did you know that we are made in the image of God? The one billion people who are living on less than $1/day are made in the image of God too. The person who cut you off in traffic the other day is also made in the image of God. Remember the person who really annoyed you you or gave you poor service at the restaurant? They are also made in the image of God. Oh yeah, and all of those people caught up on both sides of the conflict over gaza, those old men and women, and all of those little kids--did you know that they were made in the image of God?

I think we have to wonder about more than this blog post when we ask "where's the image?" it seems like far too many of us have forgotten that all of the people around us are made in the image of God, and so we treat others as less than humans. We refer to human problems as "not my problem" and we end up tarnishing that very image of God in which we ourselves have been made.

I remember reading a quote from Rob Bell that really syncs this all together.

When i respect the image of God in others, I protect the image of God in myself."

So as you go about your day today, I ask you to pause for a moment when you feel like ignoring the needs of others. When you feel like you've got too many problems of your own, take a moment and pause. Ask yourself, where's the image? Look for it. Remember that you and that everyone you meet share in bearing the image of the God of the universe.