Things to Think About

As my first official blog i wanted to talk about a book I recently read called Sex God, by Rob Bell. I finished the book a couple of days ago and frankly i already want to pick it up again because of all the thoughts and realizations it led me too.

The first chapter really caught my attention by Bell setting up how our humanity has changed. He starts the chapter out by giving a short summary of something Lieutenant Colonel Mercin Willet Gonin, a British soldier who helped liberate a German concentration camp, wrote in his diary. He explained how he had seen corpses laying everywhere; some in piles and some by themselves or in pairs where they have fallen. He also wrote that "it took a little time to get used to seeing men, women and children collapse as you walked by them. It was, however, not easy to watch a child choking to death from a diphtheria when you knew a tracheotomy and nursing would save it." 

Bell uses this horriffic document to explain how people are being stripped of their humanity. In Genesis it clearly states that in all of creation there is something different about humans. There is a divine spark that resides within them. We are bearers of the divine image. What we as people have not come to realize is that something as un-significant, or significant, as a bunch of hormone driven guys rating girls as they walk past is the same idea as starving Jews til they collapse where they stand. We strip people of their humanity. 

One of the biggest things i took from this book, and especially the first chapter, is that how we treat creation is how we feel about our creator. Why must we treat people as an object or something that we could use when in all reality they are the same as us. A person with a story. A person with goals. A person with dreams. A person with regrets. Why is it so hard to love people that are "different" than us? I have come to realize that its how we as people, we as sinners, we as human beings see things and view the facts right in front of us. We don't see "they" as "we", "those" as "us" or "he" as "me". So when we treat "those" as "us" we are displaying the new humanity. The one God intended on us living in. God has called us to bring Heaven to Earth. We as Christians can either bring Heaven to Earth or Hell to Earth. I want to work towards the new humanity and give people a glimpse into another realm. Into a better way. A Heaven to Earth.