Real Love

I finally found enough time and courage to blog about this...
"Blue like Jazz" by Donald Miller...

"There were aspects of christian spirituality I liked and aspects I thought were humdrum...I associated much of Christian doctrine with children's stories because I grew up in church. My Sunday School teacher had turned Bible narrative into children's fables. They talked about Noah and the ark because the story had animals in it. They failed to mention that this was when God massacred all of humanity...I felt as if Christianity, as a religious system, was a product that kept falling apart, and whoever was selling it would hold the broken parts behind his back trying to divert every body's attention. The children's story stuff was the thing I felt Christians were holding behind their back. It took me a while to realize that these stories while often used with children, are not at all children's stories. I think that the devil has tricked us into thinking so much of biblical theology is story fit for kids. How did we come to think the story of Noah's ark is appropriate for children? Can you imagine a children's book about Noah's ark complete with paintings of people gasping in gallons of water, mothers grasping their children while their bodies go flying down white-rapid rivers, the children's tiny heads being bashed against rocks or hung up in fallen trees? I don't think a children's book like that would sell many copies..."

I've read this part of the book over and over. My mind was spinning by the time I was finished. I hadn't even relized it. I was a Sunday School teacher. I had taught my class about Noah and the Ark, of course I left out that God took revenge on all of humanity in that moment of time. Then, I wondered how many other things that I had taken with complete acceptance, simply because someone told me it was that way, or because that's what everyone else believed.
I realized I had a problem.
Soon I started taking lots of things and giving them this little test on whether it were completely true or not. I found that I've said Jesus died for me so many times. I hadn't even realized it...The God of the universe sent His only Son, the only One there was ever going to be, and gave Him life so that He could die a painful and shameful death. For me. This one soul. At my very inmost core I am stamped with His love. A love that never fails, and never ends. Why did this stop blowing my mind away? Sure, I was raised in a Christian home, with Christians parents. Sheesh, I've even gone to a Christians school my whole life. But, if I don't figure out that the one and only Son of God has loved me so much, and died for me, even before I was born, won't every time I hear that statement I'll find the devil is tricking me into making that seem normal? Or as if I deserved it?
Wow. When did that happen?
 1 John 3:16 "We know what real love is because Christ gave up His life for us."
~Believer in PRTC