Wow, that title is a mouthful isn’t it? Let’s start this out by saying I’m a Rob Bell fan. Maybe to those outside of the Christian community this doesn’t mean a lot but I think most Christians have to define themselves as either on his team or not. When he released his previous book Love Wins I was so impressed and thankful for his fresh perspective on the Bible but the book was divisive to say the least.
He’s come back with What We Talk About When We Talk About God and it is his best, deepest, most inspiring book yet. With every chapter I found myself feeling release, if that could be called an emotion. I was letting go of the fear and anxiety associated with what I didn’t know or couldn’t understand about God as Bell takes the reader through life, science, ancient history, and not-so-ancient history, all things that some churches try to pass off as things that can’t go hand-in-hand with God.
Here’s the book trailer:
It’s inspiring how much more beautiful everything becomes when we really examine the world God created and look for aspects of himself therein. The entire second chapter is full of science, yes, science, and was not boring at all but almost too fascinating for me to read all at once. God is so obviously showing himself to us, and we can’t be afraid to look. Embrace science, embrace history, embrace culture. These are parts of God, not things hindering us from him! If we have to tell ourselves to stay away from science because it’s too big for God, we won’t be able to handle God and this knowledge, then God has failed. And our God never fails!
Here’s an example of how Bell leads to these small but extraordinary realizations. I’ve always had questions about the patriarchal theme of God. God is not human, so why is he given a gender? I’m not set against it but I did question it, and here is Bell’s offer:
Wow, that makes so much sense. It has nothing to do with men vs. women, it has everything to do with the culture in which the Bible was written. The human hands who took down the inspiring words of God. How could they best describe this amazing being? As a man that, they thought, was the essence of life.
I loved reading this book during the week leading up to Easter. I happened to get to Good Friday service early because I was planning on checking the kids into Sunday School only to find out that they wanted the whole family in the main service. I found myself with sleeping kids in the car with some time to kill so of course I started reading. This is what I found, and it was so perfect, it made my Easter unlike any other:
Some things that the church I go to has been exploring recently are questions and doubts. So many people have them and they don’t feel safe to express them, the idea has been planted that this somehow makes you less of a Christian. Here’s another quote:
“Faith and doubt aren’t opposites; they are, it turns out, excellent dance partners.”
How many more people would be willing to hear what Christians have to say about God if this was the message? That you don’t have to blindly accept everything but that just like everything else, a relationship with God is something that is nurtured and is constantly evolving?
