reflections about life and the randomness that follows

I made fun of Chris about a year and a half ago about how long it took him to read Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Confession… I’ve taken longer. Over the past week I’ve began reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I’ve read it before, but it was so long ago and I read the book so quickly that, sadly, I missed a lot of what Lewis wanted to say. Mere Christianity has been a good read, but I didn’t really expect Lewis to disappoint.

“I hope you will not misunderstand what I am going to say. I am not preaching, and Heaven knows I do not pretend to be better than anyone else. I am only trying to call attention to a fact; the fact that this year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practise ourselves the kind of behaviour we expect from other people.” -Mere Christianity, Chapter 1.

Instead of reading more of Chan I opted to take the advice of an acquaintance and watched a couple of interviews on Youtube. I was curious when I read the title “Erasing Hell by Francis Chan” and immediately thought that this was some type of rebuttal or acknowledgment of Rob Bell’s recent book “Love Wins” which I have not yet read. The video was humbling and I look forward to reading more about Chan’s journey through scripture about what Hell is and isn’t.

Chan’s humble approach to the subject of Hell isn’t an approach I’m used to seeing in the South. I expect to see one of two things when people talk about Hell. The first is that they don’t talk about it. They avoid it and try to revert back to an idea of only a loving God, but seem to forget the justice of God. The second is the typical (and annoying) in your face, turn or burn approach. This approach tends to harp to hard on the justice and anger of God and forgets about the love, grace, and mercy that we expect from a perfect Father. I can’t wait to read “Erasing Hell”, but take a look at Chan for yourself…