Feb 28

So, I’m realizing now that many of my posts have been a bit negative at times, and I don’t think this is very representative of who I am. I’d like to think that I am a very positive guy, always seeing the silver lining.

I can’t begin to explain how powerful I think hope is for a person. Without hope, what do we have? Nothing. Without hope, what will we do to help improve the situation? Very little, if anything at all.

Every human on earth is capable of so much! We should all have hope in the people we interact with - our politicians, people from other countries and religions, and even the evildoers (for lack of a better term).

Just the mear mindset of hope is powerful enough to make things happen, not to mention makes you feel a lot better all around. Knowing others have hope in you is very encouraging and very compelling to do great things.

Jesus talks plenty about hope in the Bible. It is obviously an integral part of being a Christian. When there is little to hope in there is always hope in God. It isn’t naive to hope for the impossible. Probably just about everyone has been shown the impossible at some point in their life. Who are we to say what can and can’t be done?

It isn’t foolish to have hope when no one else around you feels that way. They may try and make you feel foolish, but hope is infectious, and you’re likely to rub off on them. To some, hope is almost insulting, and offensive at times. It can be seen as ignorance, or from someone who really doesn’t know the situation. I don’t believe hope always comes naturally to humans. It may need to be a conscious decision, rather than a feeling we wait for. It seems the bigger the problem, the harder it is to just have hope.

So… Here’s Hopin’

Feb 24

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?