It's been wayyy too long since I've blogged. But sometimes my complete lack of inspiration prohibits me for fear I have nothing worth saying. However, today I feel the need to say something. So here I go.
On the way to Springfield, Ohio today, I was listening to a sermon by a preacher from Mars Hill Bible Church. Mars Hill is a church in Michigan which was lead by Rob Bell until he recently announced he was leaving. This message wasn't given by Rob, though. It was one of his teaching pastors. The man was preaching on 1 John 5:11. The hour long message was extremely detailed and explored the ideas of water and blood used in the Bible and how they relate to God. The conclusion was that blood represented suffering and hardships and even death and water represented life and rebirth. For instance, Jesus' ministry began with his being baptized in water and ended with being tortured and bloodily crucified on the cross. This trend shows up all over the Bible.
Of course, the guy didn't just talk the whole time about these trends. He had to make a point somewhere about how it pertains to humanity today in any way. Besides, what's history without a present purpose today? The guy's point was that life and death, happiness and suffering are all part of our lives and the life of Jesus. Suffering. Pain. Confusion... Reality. All of these are incorporated in a humans life. Every human. Even Jesus. The guy talked about how at one point, Mary and Joseph had to teach Jesus, the Son of God, what 2+2 equaled. He didn't just have that figured out.
You see, as humans today, we're always looking for the super-real. We hate reality. Who can blame us when bombs are falling, consumerism is buzzing all through the world, and the only thing we know how to talk about anymore is the presidential election? We don't like embracing the fact that Jesus was fully human. This influence began with the heresy of Gnosticism in the early church that believed Jesus was not actually a man but a spirit that looked to be a man. Of course, Christians today don't really go that far, but they seem to desire it.
So to get to the point. The reality of suffering and pain and all that bad stuff needs to be embraced by God's people, because it can bring us closer to Him. We need to realize that it's going to happen but embrace it and trust that God is looking after us. Most of this pops up in the every day, ordinary life where we stub our toes, get bad grades, get laid off. All of this is sad, but it isn't the point of life. Those things shouldn't define who we are. If we embrace the everyday life and realize Who we're following and why we're following Him, I'm sure we'll be more understanding when crap hits the fan.
Life happens. And we decide how we perceive it. After all, the way we look at life is the way our life is determined. Sometimes we may not choose for bad things to happen, but we do choose how to react. Next time something frustrating happens, question whether it's worth freaking out about and realize that there's a God who cares about you and wants the best for you. You live and you learn. Jesus did.
