The Beginning

A few weeks ago David and I were talking when he randomly says "I think we should start a Bible Study". It was weird because that was something I had in the back of my mind for a while, but I never really thought anybody else would actually be interested in it and I just assumed the idea would get pushed aside if I mentioned it. But David brought up the idea and we both immediately got excited. We weren't sure what direction we were going to take this, when we would begin, or where it would be held, but we both knew it was something we wanted to do.

In the midst of this, both of us were reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and were really enjoying it, so we pretty much decided that we would start leading the Bible Study through that book. After further planning we finally set a date, and I think our excitedness began turning to nervousness. I'm a shy person. I'm a listener and a follower, not a leader or a speaker. Although David and I had no intention of "teaching" this Bible Study, we both knew that we would have to be the ones to get the discussion going and come up with questions and flow for the conversation. I know, for me, it was a huge step forward because for the first time I was actually taking initiative to get things done.

Yesterday was our first session and I think, aside from a few distractions, it went very well. I expected only four maybe five people to show up, but we ended up having 9. Although David and I were the main ones proposing ideas and questions, there was really no problem getting other people to talk. Nearly everyone had their own opinion to put forth, and those who didn't I knew were actually listening and thinking through what we were talking about.

The main issue that chapter one talked about was the vastness and intricacy of God's creation. In the book, Francis asks you to go watch this video. After watching it, I kinda had mixed emotions. Part of me was in awe of my Mighty Creator, while another part of me wondered why the heck he felt the need to create the world like this. Were all those other galaxies really necessary? Does a caterpillar really need 228 distinct muscles just in its head? Does an elm tree really need 6 million leaves? Practically, maybe not. But it goes so much deeper than that. During our discussion I asked the question: Why did God make the world so excessively big? We tossed different ideas around like the fact that God's creation is his own work of art, and his personality is seen through it. Another idea was that maybe God just wanted to show us how much he really cares. He cares so much that he added such great detail to his work to show us that we are worth the time and effort. Another reason would be just to show how big and powerful he really is. I also think a great explanation for the complexity and vastness of creation is seen in Romans 1:20. "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." God made his creation so detailed so that we would know there is a divine being, a mighty Creator, a God loves us so much that he would make himself man and die for us. We spend our lives asking for proof of this God we can't see, when the truth is he shows himself blatantly in the world around us. His creation is our proof, and we are left with no excuse to turn from him.

So after concluding that God shows his majesty through the magnitude of his creation, we began asking the question: Why is it so hard to love God, and why do we have to constantly remind ourselves of him when his presence is so obvious? We all agreed that we have too many distractions in our lives. Just sit back and think of how much time you've wasted in your life doing things that in reality are meaningless. I spend way more time on facebook than I do reading my Bible. The amount of time I spend talking to God would have to be multiplied by a fairly large number to reach the amount of time I spend talking to my friends. I work for money that I don't even really need way much more than I spend time serving those around me without pay. Am I saying that you should quit your job and spend your life working for no pay? No, you must still think about what's best for yourself. But at the same time, nothing about Christianity is practical. It wasn't practical for the disciples to leave their jobs and their families in order to follow Jesus, but it was something he demanded and was a risk they had to take. I tend to play life safely. I don't take many risks, and I usually leave the big things for other people to handle. But I think I've reached the point in my life where I want to give more. I'm tired of living a boring, half-way life and I want to dedicate myself completely to his work.

And aside from distractions of life, we also discussed that it's hard to love God because life can be so unfair sometimes. Death, poverty, illness, and hatred tell us that there is no God. Last Thursday I attended a memorial service of a two year old little girl who was hit by a car. How is that fair? How is it fair that she will never be given a chance at life, and that her family and those close to her will have to spend the rest of their lives missing her? It's not fair, not at all; but we will never be satisfied asking why things happen. This was the main theme of the message presented at her service. The man who did the eulogy said that we must stop asking why things happen, and just accept the fact that it did happen. In her short two years, Abigail was able to impact lives more than someone who died a natural death of old age may have been able to. Because of her accident, parents are encouraged to build stronger relationships with their kids while they still have the opportunity. People are reminded that we are never guaranteed tomorrow, and every minute of our lives count. Drivers now feel the need to be more aware and cautious of their surroundings in order to eliminate the number of accidents that happen. As horrible as it may seem, tragedy is what brings us together. We discussed 9/11 and how it brought us together as a nation, and as families. People strengthened relationships with one another because of the event. People were in churches, and we were once again a Christian nation. Although the impact may not have been lasting, it did bring us together for a while. Love was surrounding us, and we could feel God's presence in the midst of disparity. But still, we look at the world around us and see its imperfection, people die for seemingly no reason, and humanity is cruel. We fail to comprehend how a loving God can exist in the midst of that. So instead we reject him, or maybe just forget him. We become immune to him and his creation, and it gets to the point that we just really don't care.

There are several other things we discussed yesterday, but these are just the highlights I wanted to hit. I could be the only one, but I'm really excited about where this is going. For once, people actually seem like they care. We also kept throwing out the concept of how this can impact us as individuals, our youth group, our church, our community, and even the entire world we live in. I'm hoping that each session we will be able to bring up new ideas and topics of discussion. I hope that we will be able to strengthen relationships, and be able to put our beliefs into action by opening up to the community. David titled the event of our first meeting "The Beginning", but I think that would be an excellent title for the small group as a whole. Maybe this is the beginning of something new, maybe for the first time in quite a while we will all begin taking initiative and getting things done rather than waiting on someone else.

I really planned on writing this on Easter when it would fit more appropriately, but I ended up falling asleep instead. This year I just really started thinking about how horrible the commercialization of holidays are. It's like we can't even celebrate a significant day without forgetting what the significance of the day is. Days like Valentines Day, Mother's Day, and Father's day seem completely ridiculous to me because I think it's horrible to pick just one day out of the year to show love to our parent of significant other. In the same way, I hate that we reserve Good Friday and Easter as the days to recognize Jesus' death and resurrection when it's something that impacts our lives so heavily every day.

It really hit me Sunday afternoon when I was at my aunt's house for our typical Easter family gathering. I was playing with my 6-year old cousin while she was rambling on telling me about our plan to "defeat the boys" when out of nowhere she looks at me and says "Elizabeth, why does the Easter Bunny come if that's not what Easter is really all about?". It kind of took me off guard, and I honestly had no idea what to say. I ended up mumbling out something about how even though Easter has a much more important meaning, the Easter Bunny still brings us things because he wants us to be happy. Blah blah blah. As it turned out, Madeleine had a much better response for herself than what I had to give her. She simply said "I'm just happy that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead".

Sometimes we forget how simple it really is. We forget that we don't actually have to run around hiding eggs or decorating our homes with pink bunnies to make us happy. Just sit for a moment and soak in the concept of this God, who is Creator of the universe, humbles himself to become the Redeemer of the universe. He made himself man, took on the lowly life of an ordinary human being, and then bore the weight of our sins on the cross so that we may be free. So that we could live a life knowing we are forgiven even though we have done nothing to deserve it.

And aside from dying to pay the price of our sins, I believe that there is a much greater meaning behind Christ's death. Dying for our sins was mere symbolism. If that was all that was at stake then I'm sure God would have found a better solution. The God I worship is the only god(that I know of) who lowered himself to grow closer to us. The fact that the Almighty God, who has the ability to wipe us all out by just thinking it, made himself human provides an emotional connection between God and man. Christ had to live. Christ had to die. It's what set him apart, what made him respectable, what made it him real.

As anyone who is reading this probably already knows, I love the show Lost. Despite the confusion and craziness of the 5th season, it ended very interestingly. The 4th season ended with six of the characters finding their way off the island and back to the United States. John Locke, is one of the main characters of the show who I always titled the Christ-figure. At the beginning of the 5th season, Richard tells John that it is vital for him to bring those six people back to the island, and in order to do so he must first die. He spends a great deal of time trying to convince them to return, but nobody even dreamed of doing so. They would rather die then go back to the island. By the end of the season, they all find out that John died by what they thought was suicide. After hearing this, they knew that they had to go back. They didn't know why they did or why they felt this way, but it was like fate was drawing them back. John Locke's death ignited an emotion in them all and brought them back together.

In the same way, I think Christ's death acts as a bridge between all Christians, and really all of humanity. It's the one and only thing we have in common, the only thing that can connect us to one another. Without his death, we would worship him out of fear and obligation rather than out of love and admiration. Right now I'm reading through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. If you haven't read this book then I highly recommend it. And that's coming from someone who really isn't a fan of religious books. Anyway, at one point he says "No worship is better than apathetic worship". The truth is, I usually don't care. I want to care, but it's hard when you enter worship and feel no emotion. And I've spent all of this time blaming God for not giving me inspiration, but really it's my own fault. He gave his life over 2,000 years ago to give me inspiration. The only time I ever sit and think about what actually happened on that day is around Easter, and even then I'm distracted by things like going to the store to get vinegar so my mom can have colored eggs. Maybe if I treated everyday like Easter, outside of the commercialization, then I wouldn't be so lukewarm. I don't want to be apathetic anymore. I want to live for a reason. I want to live because he died.