Last night as I led my junior high girls cell group through a Rob Bell NOOMA video, I could not stop thinking and working through what the DVD was talking about. It was profound, yet not at the same time. It was one of those times where I thought I knew about something, but when hearing it for the first time in a new way, it really struck me. What does a relationship with God look like? Do we really understand what that means? Should we be able to understand?
Have you ever heard someone say something like, "Gas went down today, I just know God wanted me to able to go away this weekend becuase now I can pay for gas". Or how about..."these shoes are on sale, that MUST mean God wanted me to buy them!". Seems silly...but how far do we go in saying that God is involved in our daily lives? If God can help us find shoes on sale, then what about all the famines and earthquakes? Why doesn't God spend more time on those?
Rob Bell asks the question, "What do we believe about God's involvement in our daily lives?"
We obviously know that God is never NOT involved in our every day lives, he is always there, he is always with us. But it got me thinking, are there things that God chooses to be more involved in? Or does he just give us opportunities and we have to watch for those opporunities and make the most of them?
When you think of God, what images come to mind? I thought about this for a long time, and came up with a few things. I think of a gentle sweet Grandpa...one that smiles a lot and loves to spoil his grandkids! I see someone powerful, but loving. Someone who has every right answer, to every kind of question. I think of the best of everything, and that is what God is.
There are some people, who believe that God created the world and now sits back and watches the "show" so to speak. Agnosticism. The belief or concept that God is outside of everything. A God who is somewhere else. The belief that God is there, but only every so often her comes down "here" to earth.
In the Scriptures, they state that God has no form, and he is a spirit, but in most cases we as people liken God to having physical characteristics and describe him in such a way. Being God's "hands" and "feet" or giving him human personification by "he". (Check out Deut 4:15-18).
So how do we even begin to understand how to have a relationship with God, when he is a spirit, with no form. We cannot see him, yet we have faith that he is there. We want to give God those human physcial characteristics becuase that is how we best relate to God. We are human...if he is to be in a relationship with us, we best do that like we do here on earth, with our friends.
This is the part where Jesus comes into play.
Jesus took on flesh and blood, so that he could become like us! So that we can have a better understanding of how to relate to God, of how to be in "relationship" with him.
"Jesus is like God in taking on flesh and blood, and so in his generosity, in his compassion that is what God is like. In his telling of the truth, that is what God is like. In his love, and forgiveness, and sacrifice, that's what God is like. That's who God is. That's how the song goes" -Rob Bell
I think God understood that he needed to send Jesus into this world, not only to save our sins, but for us to be able to physcially see what he is like. For us to be able to understand the things that God is about, and how that relates to US and what we should be doing here on earth. How much easier is it for us to relate to someone who became like us, 100% flesh and blood! To try and comprehend God, well is just plain beyond our comprehension! He is just SO big, and so great. He is will never end and he has always been! Try and grasp your mind around that one! How about how he can be everywhere all at once! It is mind boggling, but amazing.
Rob Bell likened our relationship with God to a song. So if my relationship with God is like a song, what does that look like? What kind of songs do I enjoy listening to? What makes them enjoyable to listen to? The melody maybe, the lyrics, the chords, the way the different sounds of the different instruments play together to form something beauitful. When a song sounds pleasing to our ears, it makes us feel good. Everything seems good and right.
There is always a song playing, and whether we realize it or not that song is written on our hearts. Rob Bell makes a good point, the question isn't whether or not we are playing a song, the question is "are you in tune?"
It makes sense. How often are we out of tune? How often do we do things to make the song, to make our relationship with God, sound and look horrible. (John 4:24). When we are in tune with God we make a beauitful song, that carries everywhere we go. It continually plays for everyone to hear. When we are out of tune, that is also noticed.
There are people out there, who claim to know everythign about Christianity, yet can seem WAY out of tune. But others who know nothing about being a Christian but can seem so in tune? Why is that?
The video asked a really good question, "Can you believe in God and be out of tune with the song? Does it work the other way around? What is more important to Jesus, what we believe or what we do?" Think about it.
So, if God sent Jesus into this world so that we could see the things that Jesus lived out, truth, love, grace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, justice, we need to realize that we can play that song too! We can relate to this, and we can and should do all of those things. We can be like Jesus and live like him. When we do that, we are in tune! We are playing the song to its fullest potential! (John 10:10).
When we live like Jesus, when we are in tune with the song, we are essentially living in a relationship with God.
I just love this analogy. It is simple, yet profound. I want to play a beauitful song, and I want my relationship with God to be beauitful. How do I do this? By living like Jesus, who God sent to earth to show me what living like Jesus looks like!
There are times when I have a hard time understanding God's greatness, and vastness. The fact that he is invisible, that he is SO big that he can be everywhere at once. But to KNOW, that he loved us and cares about us enough to send his son to be an example to us and to show us what God's heart is like, that is truly amazing.
note: much of my thoughts have come straight from the movie and I am re-telling the movie in a sense with my own thoughts here and there.
