So i am deciding to start writing my thoughts as a sort of review on the book Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. It's not meant to come to conclusions about everything he said because that would be unhelpful to anyone. But rather to enlighten an audience to something I was ignorant to until last night. And hey i love books so I'm sure it'll be benficial.
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Rob makes a quote in the book that made me think so deeply about somethings that I learned in Hebrews class. It says, "If it is true, then it isn't new." And I began to think about the New Covenant the writer of Hebrews relates to the people. It's not a new covenant as the American mind would define but rather a building upon of the old. We, as Westerners, think that everything new has to be a "start" when that is not at all what the orignal word even meant. Not even close. Say we need a "new" basement because the current one is flooded. We would not tear down the current basement because the whole house would fall rather we would just paint or lay new carpet. That's what the word new means. As this leads into the first chapter I see a lot of diversity int his chapter. I began to notice extremely early on that Rob Bell was not going to come to any conclusions to my quesitons. In fact I could almost say that he raised so many more for me. However depressing that is I guess there is hope in those quesitons. They provide a place for redemption. On page 21 he comments that "So the way of jesus is not about religion; it's about reality." Wait though? Aren't we supposed to have a religion? Yes but not in the way we are promoting it. I have to say i took a long pause there and had to rethink if I was in reality going to read this book. Rob Bell gives me a perspective of the holiness of God that I have never seen before. It wasn't forced upon me by anything but rather it was just guided through his words. It is not his intention to destroy our religions or promote the "home church" but rather to show that there has to be something more to this life. And it's not built upon statues, words, or even good things like love. It is built upon God and that's all we can accept as absolute. On page 23 he says, "our words aren't absolutes. Only God is absolute, and God has no intention of sharing this absoluteness with anything, especially in words people have come up with to talk about him....God is bigger than our words, our brains, our worldviews, and our imaginations." In this chapter he talks about who we have set God up to be and that person is someone we made up and doesn't hold the essence of who God really is. That is a terrifying thought that we try to put him into words and we fail and we try to errect statues, or memories of who he is and that is not even all he is. So how do we accept a mystery that we will never understand completely. He explains doctrines as this wall of bricks. If someone tomorrow were to discover that there really never was a virgin birth or that Jesus' father's name was Larry, a brick would be tossed off your wall. And if it is the foundational principles you'll have nothing. Could you still love Jesus? Could you still be a Christian? Could you? Well? Maybe it was the explaining that was done of this part of the book earlier on in the day but this struck me hard. My foundation is not Jesus or God it's what i have derived to believe about them and that in itself is a consequence. This is the reason every time a different opinion is brought to the table my wall starts to crumble and then I convince myself that I'm right and my wall becomes firm again. Of course this wall keeps community and others opinions from shaping me but it's safe this way right? Wrong. It's not that Jesus was not born of a virgin or Joseph was not His father. We have historic evidence. It's the fact that our foundation needs to be on God simply. We must stop making religion into something that can be grasped by the average person. It's complexity must be embraced and we must move on for there. Is there mystery? Yes. Is there pain? Yes. But why? Ask.
We cannot afford as a christian body to stop asking questions in the safety of community. It's not about anyone in that setting having answers it's about searching the heart of God and realizing his mysteriousness is what first drew us near.
It's okay to struggle. It's okay to hurt. It's okay to wrestle with God. You realize all along he will win. There is no chance of us winning. But isn't this the type of God we all want to serve? The one who is righteous (right acting), scary (so holy we can't help but quiver in our sinful selves), loving (unconditionally), and believes in the beauty of this Earth because He made it. Perfectly. So on to our questions. Our hopes. Our fears. Because in this essence our humanity and humility shows and God has something to work with. | 
