This summer, I reached the one year mark of living back in the states. It was a bittersweet feeling. I miss the nations in the deep places of my heart, but cherish the sweet lessons I have learned in this year at home. I have reconnected with friends and mentors, bonded with family, and completed a year of university. School has been inspiring for a nerd like me, as I'm sure future blogs will reveal. But perhaps the most important thing I learned at school last year was a lesson in love.
After three years of traveling the world, studying the Bible, and living in a missional community I re-entered the American academic world. As a political science major, I dusted off my apologetics books and brushed up on my debate arguments. Enrolled in a "secular college" I was prepared to win people to Christ through the virtue of my argument -- intellectually and logically. I was tired of accusations that Christians can't use their brains and intended to prove them all wrong.
But then something happened. First, I realized that nobody was asking the questions I had rehearsed the answers to. My classmates and professors didn't care about the Council of Niccea, they were just trying to get through today. I listened to hours of people... hurting. Looking for love. Broken. Purposeless. Then it hit me, they didn't need an argument, they needed to encounter love. A love that never ends, never gives up, never fails. For once they experienced a love like that, I wouldn't need to convince them God was real, they would know it at the core of who they are. And so I set aside my arguments and picked up the burden of love for my classmates and co-workers.
I have also been doing what I affectionately call, "embracing the crazy." Once I allowed myself to let go of logic as a tool of winning my friends to the Kingdom, I realized how crazy we Christians sound -- and I love it! I believe in a virgin birth and that a God/man's blood allows me to live forever! Just let that sink in a bit. Sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? But that is the beauty of faith. God is completely other than us. He is beyond our reasoning, comprehension, and logic. So rather than try to intellectualize the indescribable and logically prove the immeasurable, I'm learning to embrace the fact that I don't understand it all. I have no other explanation other than faith. It is truly believing in the unseen hope. I love that I can't fathom all that He is, because if I could, I would limit Him in the finite dimensions of my own mind. No, my Jesus is limitless. He is the author of life and sculptor of love.
So I choose to embrace the crazy -- to treasure what is beautifully foreign and unseen. I never thought I would be the girl championing fluffy love over intellectualism or debate, but my human logic is overrated in the light of God's strong, unchanging, life-giving love. He is more real than I could ever describe and more loving than I could ever argue. His love reigns supreme in the universe and it's going to change the world. Has it changed yours? Will you let Him in?
After three years of traveling the world, studying the Bible, and living in a missional community I re-entered the American academic world. As a political science major, I dusted off my apologetics books and brushed up on my debate arguments. Enrolled in a "secular college" I was prepared to win people to Christ through the virtue of my argument -- intellectually and logically. I was tired of accusations that Christians can't use their brains and intended to prove them all wrong.
But then something happened. First, I realized that nobody was asking the questions I had rehearsed the answers to. My classmates and professors didn't care about the Council of Niccea, they were just trying to get through today. I listened to hours of people... hurting. Looking for love. Broken. Purposeless. Then it hit me, they didn't need an argument, they needed to encounter love. A love that never ends, never gives up, never fails. For once they experienced a love like that, I wouldn't need to convince them God was real, they would know it at the core of who they are. And so I set aside my arguments and picked up the burden of love for my classmates and co-workers.
I have also been doing what I affectionately call, "embracing the crazy." Once I allowed myself to let go of logic as a tool of winning my friends to the Kingdom, I realized how crazy we Christians sound -- and I love it! I believe in a virgin birth and that a God/man's blood allows me to live forever! Just let that sink in a bit. Sounds a bit crazy, doesn't it? But that is the beauty of faith. God is completely other than us. He is beyond our reasoning, comprehension, and logic. So rather than try to intellectualize the indescribable and logically prove the immeasurable, I'm learning to embrace the fact that I don't understand it all. I have no other explanation other than faith. It is truly believing in the unseen hope. I love that I can't fathom all that He is, because if I could, I would limit Him in the finite dimensions of my own mind. No, my Jesus is limitless. He is the author of life and sculptor of love.
So I choose to embrace the crazy -- to treasure what is beautifully foreign and unseen. I never thought I would be the girl championing fluffy love over intellectualism or debate, but my human logic is overrated in the light of God's strong, unchanging, life-giving love. He is more real than I could ever describe and more loving than I could ever argue. His love reigns supreme in the universe and it's going to change the world. Has it changed yours? Will you let Him in?
0 comments:
Post a Comment