I love Forrest Clay and his music. It’s authentic, refreshing. And it puts words on so many of my feelings about God and faith and the Bible and all the things.
Did you listen yet? In the episode he sang one of the songs off his upcoming EP called “Does God” and so many parts of the song had the hair on my arms standing up.
One of the lines in the song asks the question, “did God kill his kid?” and then goes on to wonder if God really needed blood to be shed in order to forgive sin and since this is what so many of us believe and what so many churches insist is true, perhaps we’ve created a God who looks just like us, a God who …
Needs bloodshed.
Is angry.
Wants revenge.
Seeks to punish.
Excludes those who can’t get their act together.
… Maybe God isn’t like that at all, but maybe it’s you and me who are like this and we’ve simply justified it by creating a God who is like that too.
Why?
Because if God is angry and judgmental and outcasts those who are different, it makes it a whole lot easier for me to justify myself doing the very same thing.
And that makes me think about the wide road vs. the narrow road. I was always taught that the “wide road that leads to destruction” is the road where people don’t believe in Jesus and are headed to hell while the “narrow road that leads to life” is the road where people believe in Jesus, live according to his ways, and are headed to heaven.
BUT.
What if.
What if the wide road that leads to destruction is the road where people are making God in their image to justify their own hatred, their judgmental mindsets, their desire for revenge and punishment, etc. while the narrow road that leads to life is the road where people are trying to live the way of Christ, the way that is opposite the way of the world …
The way of love, not hatred.
The way of inclusion, not judgement.
The way of peace, not revenge.
What if the wide road is the easy road to travel not because it’s where people aren’t believing in Jesus, but because it’s where people are excluding, hating, judging, and living in their own country club-ish echo chamber where everyone looks, thinks, and acts like they do and what if the narrow road is the road of love and peace and forgiveness?
Hatred comes natural to me, if I’m being honest, while love is something I really need to work at. And hatred leads to destruction, too - it hurts people, outcasts people, and destroys lives; love, though, that creates life …
It raises dead spirits.
It brings life to lost dreams.
And it makes the world a better place.
Lots of thoughts swimming around this week. What was your favorite part of the episode? What’s stirring in your heart today?
Peace.
Glenn
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