One of the central conflicts in the human story is how we deal with the reality of unspeakable evil.  I make the argument in Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity that the cross is God’s response to how far we as humans think we can go.  It invites us into the reality that there is nothing we can do to lose the love of God.  But we can lose site of it.  And because of this possibility we still encounter evil.  It still exists.  To engage the God imagination means going through the cross.  And that’s not easy to do.

I received the following letter from a friend who is working through Discovering The God Imagination.  His letter is brutal but at the same time deeply hopeful.  I look forward to your response to it.

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I enjoyed the youtube promo clips – well done! It was my wife’s birthday yesterday and your book was part of our dinner conversation at the steak house last night. I’m glad I finally had a chance to let her know why I feel so passionate about the whole matter and why I spent quite a bit of time thinking and blogging about it.

Less than an hour ago, I received a phone call from the daughter-in-law of one our elderly church members. Her dad had been in a wheelchair for the last 20 years of their marriage and just died a few months ago. Being widowed hasn’t been easy but somewhat manageable for the mother-in-law but she also has a younger brother who is a bit slow (not quite mentally retarded) – a very gentle soul who couldn’t hurt a fly. He’s come to church with her many times. Earlier this week he became victim of a home invasion during the night. He woke up from the commotion and the invaders beat him into a pulp. They broke his neck and back, threw him down the stairs and then tried to set the house on fire on top of him.

I don’t know any details how he survived but he’s in ICU right now and the doctors are predicting that he will be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life as well.

The daughter-in-law told me that her mom was pretty mad at God after receiving the news. It’s more than understandable. It’s one thing to intellectualize the problem of evil and quite another to have it hit so close to home. It really puts the God imagination to the test like nothing else. It’s hard to see unchanged dignity in people capable of such unspeakable evil and unprovoked violence. It’s difficult to maintain faith in humanity and an unshaken belief in the continuing perspective of ferocious love in God for the enemies when love itself has been so utterly perverted into senseless satanic brutality against the innocent and when you have to experience and endure it yourself or see it happen to a loved one. That particular aspect of the cross is being repeated over and over in our world, not always to such an extreme but brutal enough to leave all of us scarred in the end.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: as simple and compelling the God imagination may be to an open mind and in the attempt to grasp the meaning of God’s story, the very reality of evil and our personal encounters with it can easily shout louder in their presentation of evidence to the contrary. It’s in situations like this where one feels much more compelled to embrace a concept of utter depravity and evil identity of human beings who are all bound for judgment and hell unless they miraculously change by God’s intervention. We judge the tree by its fruit. If the fruit is so evil, obviously the tree must be evil as well. It is the question who we really are when the evil evidence presents itself.

How do you talk to a victim of horrible violence about God and about those who inflicted the suffering? I know that what we want to hear is that God hates these criminals just as much if not more than we do. What we want to hear is that even though they got off the hook now, God is going to get them later. Justice will be served. They’ll burn in hell and deservedly so. And we hear it as an echo of all the martyrs whose blood still cries out for justice.

Problem is: where does that leave US? Are we incapable of the same evil? I know that deep down we really believe that we could never do what these guys did, or those who ran concentration camps, gulags and alike – who seemingly without any remorse abuse, torture and kill. We really do divide humanity into the good guys and the bad guys. And we’re convinced that in heaven we finally don’t have to deal with the bad guys anymore. But there’s always that nagging question too that just won’t go away: am I really good enough? Will God possibly judge me as evil too? We may not carry with us the same degree and depth of evil but still enough to know that there’s lots in our own lives that cannot pass as holy and pure.

For me personally, it still all comes down to the meaning of the cross. The cross reveals the evil inside of me just as it does reveal the evil in those who were complicit in Jesus’ arrest and execution or who actually carried it out. But it reveals at the same time how far God’s love and grace is willing to go – not to give evil a free pass and encourage it to continue but to give everyone a chance to see evil clearly and embrace love instead – a love that sees value in people apart from their evil deeds and is undeterred by hate and senseless brutality, a love that has the power to free us from hate and transform us into lovers ourselves.

So my conclusion is this: Suffering and our broken understanding of it may speak louder than the truth but it cannot drown it out. If our evil acts determine our identity and those of others, we’re all doomed, not just those who are beyond the line of acceptability in our own thinking. Thoughts of revenge and deserved wrath may be a true reflection of our understanding of evil but they don’t solve anything. It doesn’t really lessen our pain nor will it change the perpetrators. The only way to heal is by seeing and embracing God’s way of redeeming through consciously and willingly taking up the cross as an act of love towards all. We can only overcome the sting of suffering and death by embracing suffering and death ourselves. I’m not able to love this way apart from being profoundly impacted by God’s same love for me.

Those are some intitial thoughts after feeling quite numb having heard what happened. Maybe you have some comments of your own. I’d be happy to hear them.

Much love,

(Friend)

Note: Please feel free to share your thoughts on the letter and what it means to love in the midst of unspeakable violence.

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Discovering The God Imagination: Reconstructing A Whole New Christianity offers a sweeping new interpretation of the narrative of Christianity, Jonathan Brink explores the remarkable dissonance between our historical understanding of Gospel and what the story in Scripture actually reveals.  It offers a compelling possibility for those looking to reconstruct their faith in a whole new way. Available today from CreateSpace and Amazon. Order from CreateSpace and use code 5GFARGT9 to receive a 15% discount.

Contrary to public opinion, I think the Bachelor and the Bachelorette are important shows. Seriously? You ask.

This post started because my friend Kate Murray shared her thoughts on the show. She said:

Last night I watched the Bachelorette.  I never watch the Bachelorette.  I don’t know what got into me, but I sat on the couch, for two hours, listening to the guys “tell all” and recount their stories from the season.  Mostly I watched as they and this season’s Bachelorette, Ali, spoke of finding love and her quest to find the man of her dreams.

But as I watched, I thought about how different their experiences have been from my own – and if any relationship that begins in such a setting (not only in exotic locations, but on national TV) can survive the reality of life (most don’t – I think only two or three couples have actually made it down the aisle and are still together).

Her observations made me thing of another show I watch with my kids.  It’s called Wipeout. Contestants navigate an obstacle course and get pummeled a long the way. What I’ve noticed is that the course is designed to produce moments of hilarious pummeling. In other words, its designed for the laugh, not the contestants.  There are points in the course that the contestants simply can’t get by without experiencing a dramatic wipeout, hence the name.

The producers of Wipeout are smart because they pick really interesting, and rather kooky people who are willing to look silly on tv.  Those willing to make fun of themselves have the chance to win 50 thousand dollars. They highlight those willing to make fun of themselves. Its no unusual for contestants to dance in costumes, shout native calls, talk about their desire for breast reduction surgery (a male), and show their ninja skills.

I’ve watched the Bachelor and the Bachelorette in the past and I can help but wonder the same thing. The show is not really designed to produce relationship. It’s designed to produce a moment where we cringe, guffaw, and laugh AT the contestants. Both shows are like a pressure cookers designed to produce cringe worthy moments where someone melts down on television.  Those are the moments everyone talks about on Twitter and Facebook.  “Did you see that guy last night get the tattoo for the girl.  LOSER.”  We’re in on the gag because we now know from the history of the show that no matter how much they think its real, it is not.  No matter how much they try, there is a high degree of probability that they will not make it.  In other words, the show is for our experience, not the contestants.

I think we watch because the show gives us our dream scenario.  Contestants are given dream situations for their dates, romantic possibilities that only a few could experience, and are then expected to make a choice that is largely undignifying no matter how much they rationalize it.  But if the dream does anything it shows that it more likely a nightmare.

This is a very powerful video on people’s experiences of being judged, specifically within the church space.  I have felt some of these statements myself and have seen them in other people’s lives.  Not trying to be funny but I really loved the story of the guy who stole the Jesus statue for his grandmother.  Its sad that a little boy did something for such good reasons but it became one of the defining negative events of his lives.

Judgment is so destructive.  When we exclude someone from love, when we see someone as outside of the possibility of being loved, it ruins people.  I would suggest the people who are doing the judging are the one’s suffering more because they are likely unaware of what they are doing.  But in the end I think everyone falls into that category to an extent.

Love wins out in the end.

[Note: The above video contains graphic violence.]

Sometimes I wonder if our fear of hell in the afterlife is keeping us from seeing the reality of hell in this life.

Some of you may know that I spent some time working in Hollywood.  I wanted to be a screenwriter after growing up watching movies.  I was captivated by the storytelling process in a visual medium.  Two of my favorite directors were Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorcese. To this day A Clockwork Orange remains one of the most haunting movies I have ever seen. If Kubrick and Scorcese have done anything it is display the brutal reality of the human situation.  We like to kill each other, sometimes in horrific ways.  We don’t like the idea that we are capable of such madness, yet we watch it.

Well some guy decided to mash these two directors together using 34 of their films to produce three short segments.  What is brilliant about it is that it in a very simple way captures the madness that both directors seemed to present but in a very simple narrative.  By isolating the emotion, it magnifies the emotion.  The first section explores violence.  The second section explores madness.  And the third section explores the anger of loss.  In all three sections  I couldn’t help but see the reality of hell.

The second section is particularly interesting to me because it seems to explore the reality of our own brokenness.  I think the central question in the entire human story is, “Are we good or evil?”  And at certain times in our lives we are struck with consequences that actually suggest we are evil.  The expression on the characters faces provides an amazing glimpse into that moment.  This is the moment when we’re contemplating the need and want for redemption yet it seems beyond our grasp.  That is hell to me.  It’s that moment when we see ourselves as beyond the love of God, with no hope.  If we extend that thought to eternity, we are trapped.

What do you think of the video?  And if you’re so inclined, what do you think of hell?

There are no words that can accurately describe the loss of a child.

Today at around 1:30 PM I got a email from a friend that said my friend’s son had been hit by a car and was being lifeflighted to the hospital.  He didn’t make it.  For about ten minutes I walked around the house, unable to process what I had just heard.  I didn’t want to think that this little boy, who I knew so well had been taken from this life.  What made it more real was that his name was Carter.  He was seven.  I have a son who is eight named Carter.  Our sons had played together so many times.

For the next two hours I was unable to work or pretty much do anything. Sudden death is like a syndrome that just takes over.  It makes no sense and arrests my body of its strength.  I have no control over my own emotions.  I weep as I write this. 

Did I say there are no words that can accurately describe the loss of a child.

I sometimes wonder if God cried for his own son?  Did he weep when Jesus hung on the cross?  Did he agonize over the cost of what it took to reveal how far love would go?   I have to believe the answer is yes.

Please lift up Brandon and Alicia if you can.

Sometimes I think God allows pain in order to get us to the point of admitting what we don’t want to admit.

Recently I was talking with some friends about some very important aspects of my life.  We were lamenting in some regards.  It was a very hard conversation but beautiful in many ways.  We were all sharing what was one our hearts and there was no holding back.  But at the same time it was the recognition that deep within we were hurting inside.

And one of my friends said, “I sometimes wonder if God failed?”

There was a long moment of silence as we all let the question sink in.  It wasn’t that we had reached a point of nihilism and wanted to give up on God.  It was that we had created a space of grace for someone to speak one of the deepest fears we had all felt.

I sometimes wondered if the disciples came to the same conclusion at Golgotha.  Seeing Jesus on the cross, I can imagine a few raising their hands at God in the heavens and saying, “Did you fail?”

I walked away recognizing that as much as my pain hurts, it also restores.  It frees my soul from my own bullshit.  It liberates me from pretension.  But it doesn’t leave me there.  Friday gave way to Sunday.  It calls me to resurrection and hope, to discover my own faith that comes FROM suffering.

What is the one question your suffering is creating?

I love Victor Frankl.  If you have read Man’s Search For Meaning you’re missing one of the more important books in the human story.

This short 4:00 video shot in 1972 suggests a compelling idea.  We don’t change much do we.  We’re still searching for meaning. Meaning appears to inform our humanity about who we are.  It gives us reason for being in the absence of an intrinsic mobilizing story.  And as Frankl suggests in his book, when we know what the meaning is, we can endure any form of suffering inflicted upon us.  But if we don’t, we crumble under the weight of nothingness.

What do you think of the video and what he’s saying?

What is the meaning of suffering?  Sometimes we don’t get to know until after we suffer.

Some time ago a friend from college lost his infant daughter.  The implosion to his family was utterly devastating and I could not begin to fathom the emotional content of that moment.  I can’t even imagine what it would mean to lose my children.  In the months that followed he went through what could only be described as a roller coaster ride through death.  Where his daughter had actually died, my friend was still alive, waking up each day without the resolve to continue with life.

But then hope set in.  My friend had literally hundred of people surrounding him with messages and thoughts, food and shelter.  Much of this experience happened on Facebook and it was obvious that it meant so much to him. Every day he cried and learned to put one foot in front of the other. Although my friend cries less, he has learned to return to somewhat of a normal sense of life.  He has made it through death.

And then tragedy stuck my friend’s friend in similar fashion.  Suddenly my friend was the one doing the comforting.  He had made it through and now providence was asking him to show another the way through. No one could relate better to the suffering. My friend had to be courage for his friend.

As I ponder the cross I often recognize that Jesus called us towards it so we could discover we could make it through death.  We needed a story that included the reality that life was possible on the other side.  But the only way to get there was to actually go through death.  The suffering is temporal but very real.  And when we’ve made it to the other side, we now had a story that changed everything.  We now understood that it was possible.  And at some point we needed to remember that others needed help making it through.  So we needed to go back to the spaces of suffering and stand with others in those moment.

Who is God asking you to show the way through?

How do we redeem the suffering in our lives?  A central part of The Adventurous Way is discovering a different story about the nature of suffering.

Recently I was reminded once again of the tragedy within Steven Curtis Chapman family.  His own son accidentally killed his younger sister.  The tragedy of this is almost blinding.  What do you say to your son, to the one who kills his own sister?  What do you say to your family, to the one’s who are intimately tied to the tragedy?  What do you say to yourself, as you ponder the rage towards the crushing evidence that is thrust upon you.

Steven recently responded in probably the best way he knew how, in song.  His new CD offers a raw and brutal conversation with God in the midst of tragedy.  One reviewer described it as so raw that in fairness to Steven he could not even review it.

We cannot help but ask, “Why does God allow us to suffer?”  Its a central question in the human story.  But how often do we fail to take the more courageous step and actually discover the answer, to ask, “Who am I being chosen to suffer for?”  Suffering is obvious, but the pathway through is not.  When we chose to embrace the second question we take on the amazing opportunity of revealing the way through.

The beauty of what Jesus did was show us a way through death, not just into it.  He found his courage in the idea that death is not the end, it is a way stop in the process of transcending it.  When we hold onto the idea that we are suffering for someone, even ourselves, we give our suffering meaning.  We inform it with possibility, with story.

Suffering in this way gives us hope for something that can only be discovered down the road.  But in the end what we really discovered is that we were not captive to something. We could overcome.

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It’s so easy to get bogged down in our daily troubles isn’t it.  Sometimes we just need a little perspective, a comparison to jar us out of our own self pity.  I dare you to watch this video.  It will remind you that courage begins with overcoming adversity.

Living the Adventurous Way begins with discovering not what are our limitations but what are our gifts in the midst of them.  I appreciate the father’s honesty to ask, “Why me?” But I honestly love his willingness to find out the answer.  Our limitations keep us from finding the answer.  And the people who inspire us are the ones who were willing to take the risk of going beyond our limitations.