I’ve been reading this book called, “An Arrow Pointing to Heaven,” about the life of well-known Christian musician, Rich Mullins. I read this quote by him yesterday morning.
“If there is any meaning in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, it is this: that there is a God who created us, and who loves us so much that He would stop at nothing to bring us to Him. And I really suspect that of all the things we think we want to know, the only thing we really want to know is that we are loved. And if Jesus means anything, He means that you are loved. I hope you know that. And I hope you stop worrying about all the stuff you don’t know, because I don’t think it amounts to a hill of beans.”
(Dad, I hope you appreciate this photo.)
It almost goes without saying that my favorite line here is that all of the crap we worry about “amounts to a hill of beans.”
I believe this is the stuff that tears our churches apart. We let all the “minor” things get in the way of what’s actually important: loving each other.
That’s what Jesus did, and that was his sole purpose of his life on earth: to show us what real love looks like. The Pharisees were quick to jump in and say, “But you’re doing this wrong. What about this law? How dare you heal a man on the Sabbath, our day of rest!”
A question I am frequently asked is, “Do you think that deep down, all people are the same? Or is there some big difference between a beggar on the streets of Uganda and your white, middle-class next-door neighbor?” My answer has been and will continue to be, “Yes, I do believe we are all the same.”
We are all longing for someone to tell us we’re special.
We are all longing for a place to belong and a place to be accepted for who we are.
We are all longing to be told that our lives mean something and to know there is a purpose to living that is much bigger than ourselves.
Only God can fill this hole, and my prayer is to be a living vessel of the love of Christ that reaches down into the inmost parts of man and says, “YOU ARE LOVED, JUST AS YOU ARE.”
Here’s one more quote from “An Arrow Pointing to Heaven,” by the author, James Bryan Smith.
“We need not only the victory won in the death of Christ; we also need the completion and wholeness found in the life of Christ.”
Jesus, help us to understand. Help us to love. Help us get over ourselves and our pettiness and get on with the business of the KINGDOM.
Amen.
