who cares?!

i have heard some whispers that rob bell wrote a new book. throwing this fool's two cents into the multitude of opinions already out there would be useless. i care even less as i have recently returned home from haiti with a team of friends from a young adult bible study (yabs) led by tdags. let me explain...

i arrived in haiti on the heels of a couple famous reformed christians condemning rob bell as a heretic based on an introductory video to his then upcoming book. as soon as we stepped off the plane we were smacked in the face by a world in desperate need of the most basic necessities for human existence, never mind thriving. there was trash all over the place, sewage running through the streets and dirt everywhere.

at some point during that first evening i began to think about the utter meaninglessness of this heresy hunt. where do non-christians go when they die? what is the nature of heaven and hell? these are the questions rob bell was raising (and had not yet answered!) that just did not sit well with the self-proclaimed theologically orthodox.

i began to think about how absurd it is that children are living 5 and 1/2 hours away (via plane) from a country filled with the wealthiest christians in the world, while their hair was turning orange from malnutrition. i finally understood how foolish and self-deluded we are (myself included).

christians spend so much time arguing about matters of theology that have been debated since the time of Christ! all the while we are neglecting the naked, the lame and the starving all around us by wasting our time cutting our brothers and sisters down. the way i see it is that we are heretics seeking heretics. we have lost sight of our Christ who taught us that we will be judged harshly if we pass him by on the streets while he has no clothes to wear and no food to eat.

my advice, get our of you house. go somewhere that people are starving. look for opportunities to be uncomfortable and shocked out of our american sleep. it's the best thing jen and i have ever done. talking about theology should be seen as a privilege and used for building each other up. we are all in this one together and there are millions of people who don't have the luxury of calling each other heretics. they are too busy eating mud pies to stave off their hunger pains.

let's join them in their suffering and share the love of Christ with them. they don't want to know what heaven or hell will be like when they die. they are living in hell now. they want to know the Christ who prayed these now famous words:

your kingdom come
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven

-dave-