Monthly Archives: October 2011

Oct 12 2011

Chiming in on Rob Bell’s LOVE WINS

Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever LivedOnce in a while a book comes along that gets people all riled up, bringing forth either enthusiastic praise or vehement wrath. Such a book is LOVE WINS: A BOOK ABOUT HEAVEN, HELL, AND THE FATE OF EVERY PERSON WHO EVER LIVED by Rob Bell. Check out the 563 customer reviews at Amazon to get a flavor of the furor.

Bell is the founding pastor of the Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He bears a respectable educational pedigree from Wheaton College and Fuller Theological Seminary. So what has he done to cause such a stir? The buzz claimed “Rob Bell says there is no hell.”

To many outside the church such a belief solicits a “So what, who cares?” response. But to the thousands of believers who define their faith on the tenet of eternal damnation unless one makes a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, them is fightin’ words.

I decided I needed to read the book and judge for myself. This was my first exposure to Bell, who is surely an engaging speaker. The style of the book reads like an interesting sermon series. It begs to be read aloud. The placement of words on the page is often poetical.

For emphasis.

Rather than a pedantic expression of his opinions, Bell asks a lot of questions about the basic beliefs of scores of Protestant churches. He is logical—and disturbing. If God is an “all loving Father,” then how can he cast his children into everlasting fire? Hmmm.

For Bell, the question isn’t so much about what happens “over there,” but what is happening “here.” Is there a hell? Open the newspaper, read about the wars, famine, mass executions in Mexico, the domestic violence, sexual slavery. Hell? Why sure.  It is here and now.

The real question is how to bring forth “Your Will on Earth as it is in Heaven” as envisioned in the Lord’s Prayer. Bell’s answer is coming into relationship with the living Christ. The expansive, can’t-be-contained or-totally-understood Messenger of the Good News.

Bell speaks to the disenfranchised, the people turned off by the fire and brimstone message. He breaks down the dogmatic walls. For those comfortably dwelling within those walls, he is a heretic. For those outside the walls, he offers hope.

Oct 8 2011

When Women Share A Vision

The Nobel committee got it right this year awarding  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman the 2011  Nobel Peace Prize.  While the US was heading into a decade of war in 2001, the women of Liberia decided two decades of an insane, deadly power struggle was enough. Leymah Gbowee describes the poignant moment of decision in the excellent documentary, PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL . After she and her children ran for their lives, her little boy said he wanted a donut.

A donut. A simple request. An impossible request in a city torn apart by gun-toting fools.

Gbowee had a new vision that day, a vision of a peaceful Liberia, a vision of women leading the way. Change begins with one person’s vision, followed by determination and leadership. Like Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan of Belfast, Ireland thirty years earlier, the women of Liberia came together and placed their country on a new path of peace. They even elected the first female African president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is sharing the prize.

Meanwhile, it is a woman, Tawakkul Karman, who is leading the Arab Spring in Yemen. She is not only taking on a repressive dictatorship, but a repressive culture. She is very much in the thick-of-it, currently living in a tent in the epicenter of the revolt in her country.

When women take a stand for peace, they can change the world. I pray Mexico might be next, or even Los Angeles!

Oct 6 2011

Steve Jobs, A Cautionary Tale

A couple of days ago, Sue and I got together for a Supernal Session. These are times we meditate, pray and send healing energy to people and the planet. Each session is an adventure. We never know what might happen. Sue is growing increasingly clairaudient—she hears messages or receives blocks of information. Sometimes we pass them on; sometimes they are cryptic and we wonder what we’re supposed glean from them. This week she received “As Within, So Without.” It came through almost as a chant, aswithin, sowithout over and over. When the session was over, we Googled the phrase. Turns out an ancient Greek poet named Hermessianex penned it about 3,000 years ago.

Huh. Interesting. Obviously a referral to manifesting and “creating your own reality” as the current lingo goes. So, why now the message? No clue.

Until last night. I watched the coverage of Steve Jobs passing, knowing a huge influence on all our lives had departed. CNN played a lengthy clip of his 2005 commencement speech. He speaks of the power of death—“Death is the very likely best invention of life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” He also said he looked in the mirror  and asked him something to the effect “If this is my last day on earth, will I be spending my time doing what I think is truly important?” He said he asked himself that question every day and if the answer was “no” too many days in a row, he made a change in his activities.

Can you see how Steve Jobs set himself up for an eight year battle with pancreatic cancer? He imagined facing death every day. It was a motivational tool for him.

It ultimately became his reality. As Within, So Without.

Undoubtedly, the 2003 cancer diagnosis propelled Steve into action and changed our world with i-pods, i-phones, and i-pads.

But, it came at a high cost. A liver transplant is no walk in the park. Anti-rejection drugs can be debilitating. Only Steve and his family know the personal hell he walked through to keep his vision going. I wish someone had clued Steve in early on about the danger of his daily death battle. Surely there could have been some other powerful imagery to propel him to do great things.

So, Steve Jobs stands as a cautionary tale for me. A great visionary with the ability to manifest his best dreams and his worst fears.  As Within, So Without.