The publishing market isn't that bad. However, a book was involved in the making of this post.
This weekend, I finished a memoir by Lauren F. Winner, entitled Girl Meets God. The daughter of a lapsed Southern Baptist and a non-practicing Jew, Lauren had a passion for faith, but no idea in what specifically to put her faith. For most of her young adult life, she practiced Orthodox Judaism without any support from her parents. Feeling spiritually adrift, Lauren found great comfort in rich traditions, closely-knit communities, and intense study of the Talmud. Then college happened. While studying religion at Columbia University, Lauren met Jesus. In what she describes as a love affair, Lauren "divorced" Judaism, and lost her heart to the Man from Nazereth. What remains is an account of her life after the great divorce.
It was not a clean break, but when is conversion ever neat and tidy? Judaism is remarkably beautiful, and dense with traditions that emanate faithfulness and humility before God. It's unique in that it is an ethnic group, a religion, and a culture all at once. When Lauren gives her heart to Jesus, you begin to see how much she is leaving behind, and it hurts. In one encounter, Lauren and an ex-boyfriend are combing through her bookshelves, laden with exquisite copies of ancient Jewish texts. He's dumbfounded. How could she leave all of this? How could she leave her friends, her faith, her people?
"'You've spent all these hours studying Torah,' he said. 'How could you be taken in by that carpenter?'"
As a reader, I found myself suddenly grinning at what was a very somber, serious scene.
"That carpenter."
You can hear the disdain. It sounds like something a protective father would say to his love-struck highschool daughter who brings home a boyfriend with a Harley and an eyebrow piercing. Really? You picked him? He's nothing but trouble! I re-read that sentence several times before it clicked: Jesus is the biggest "bad-boy" in the history of the world.
I'm not being irreverent or diminishing my God, please understand that. I'm trying to look at an ancient situation with modern eyes. First, He was from the wrong neighborhood. Historically, Nazareth was a slum, and Jesus worked a blue-collar job (not to mention he was born in a barn). He had very odd relatives who were prone to inciting rebellion and denouncing heads of state while wandering in the desert like madmen. I'm referring, of course, to John the Baptist. His closest friends were social outcasts, low-income tradesmen, and formerly demon-possessed prostitutes. He went into the holiest place in the world, the Temple, and basically vandalized it. He then chased everyone out with a whip, and had a full-blown fit in front of the religious elite where He called them filthy names. That's right, Jesus basically swore in church. His teachings blatantly challenged the most faithful and spiritual men of the time. Imagine if someone gathered a huge following and publicly slandered men like C.S. Lewis, Chesterton, Bonhoeffer and asserted that we were all hateful hypocrites. I'd be offended! As if that weren't enough, He claimed He was the son of God in a culture where you couldn't even enter the room where God's Spirit dwelt for fear of being struck dead.
John 1:11 reads: "He came to his own people, and even they rejected him."
Reject, outcast, trouble-maker; Jesus was the ultimate rebel.
And yet no one in all of history has ever preached such love. No one has so passionately pursued the hearts of people, and adored them in spite of every flaw. We talk about dying for love, and He went and did it. It's this kind of love that makes people go to the stake for Jesus; it's this love that compels us to love and seek justice for those who can't achieve it themselves; it's this love that makes us leave everything to chase after a God who we can't see, or smell, or touch. It's this love that makes us jump on the proverbial Harley, wrap our arms around the King of the Universe, and speed away from the sensible and the safe. It's love.
The month of February, I'll be writing a lot about love. This isn't just because of February 14th. God has been walking with me through this time of questioning, doubts, and obliterating all of my silly humanness with His love. God's love is something we talk about so much, but I don't feel we have come even close to understanding. So, among other things, February is Love Month on the blog. It's how I sign off every post, it's how He pursues me everyday.
LOVE
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