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One thing that I’m glad to see get a lot of attention lately, at least in my circle, is the element of love. It seems really simple. But is it? As a follower of Jesus Christ love should be at the center of everything I do. I use the word love all the time. I love my wife. I love Jesus. And I love…. cake? It’s obvious that to really take love seriously it means living a pretty radical life. Like, well… Jesus did. What made him so amazing was his demonstration of ultimate love, and through that, ultimate peace.

Love means not being angry with someone in traffic. It means NOT condemning others, another church or denomination, those who hurt you, and those who hurt others. After all, if we really believe that God loves everyone… the murderer, the slave owner, the sex trafficker, the sex offender, then shouldn’t we love these people also? And not just say it, but believe it. This doesn’t mean being passive, turning a blind eye to wrongdoing, or doing nothing to stop evil. It does mean looking past what a person has done and seeing that person as a person. Not us and them, but just ‘us’. All humans face incredibly hard elements of life and cope in different ways. Some ways are more terrible and destructive than others.

I’m lucky to live close to and attend Mars Hill here in Grand Rapids. The way I feel about making the element of love a huge priority in my life is largely due to the teaching and community of M.H. and Rob Bell. These ideas of love aren’t new to me, my church, or my community. Throughout history there have been great people whose lives were obviously centered around love. MLK, Ghandi. If I can even do a fraction of what these men did… wow. As a christian I must take love seriously. After all, if living the way Jesus did is ultimately the best way to live, why wouldn’t I want to live like him?

Let’s get something straight right now. Before you read this blog, read this page.

I, just like everyone, have a world view. My world view is based on tons of things, some more dominant than others. My world view is evolving every day. This is a log of my thoughts to be used for starting discussion. And to talk about the best possible way to live our lives as a community of people here on Earth.

I do not write to condemn, or to point a finger. In fact, most of what I write is a reflection of how flawed I am. You WILL find holes in my logic.

I like to explore controversial topics challenging the norms, but above all, I want to focus my life around living like Jesus Christ. I’ll be the first to admit that I am a hypocrite and find it incredibly hard to actually live the way I know is best. I enjoy discussing the best possible way to live here on earth, and believe this was modeled perfectly by Jesus.

With a lot of these topics, there are people who have a lot more ‘real world’ experience. Just because I describe what I believe to be the best way of living, doesn’t mean I fully understand it. Unfortunately, I will encounter situations that will bring a lot of this closer to home, and I hope that my world view will ground me during those times, no matter how difficult that might be.

As an example, last year I could have described how someone should mourn the loss of a loved one, but this wasn’t based on my own experience. I lost my Dad unexpectedly earlier this year… I now know what it is like… And it sucks beyond what I could have ever even imagined prior to losing him. I understand what it means to mourn, and now I’m forced to take what I believed to be true beforehand and apply it to my everyday life.

I enjoy pushing the envelope challenging what most Christians accept as the norm JUST BECAUSE that is the tradition. Tradition is important as long as we learn from it. I believe every person has the incredible force for good within them, and once we all stop posing as a bunch of people who have it all together it’s amazing how much peace can be had, and how much good can be done.

Below are my most recent posts…

Even though it doesn’t feel good, I love to be challenged, so challenge away…