Love Wins

Love Wins is a book by Rob Bell that deals with, "Heaven, Hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived." After hearing all the controversy on it I just had to read it. I mean, Bethel's newspaper wrote about it, John Piper tweeted about it, and Greg Boyd got an advanced copy and read it. You just have to read stuff like that if you're into that sort of thing.

Life after death has always been a big mystery to me. Death is such a dark thing to discuss, debate, and tackle. The end-all question is, "what happens after you die?" And nobody really knows because we're alive. In Bells' video he raises a lot of questions.

When I was reading this book I was listening to Kanye West and if you know anything about Mr. West you know he raps, he swears, says the "N" word, and recently lost his mother. I wondered, is he going to heaven or is he going to hell?

Even after reading it I find it hard to explain the vastness of such a topic. This makes me want to read the book again.

The first three chapters of the book describe heaven, hell, and an introduction the discussion about the two. Bell asks questions. How are we "saved?" How do you get in or out? He then talks about how heaven is dimensional. How it's happening now and we're a part of it. (deep right?) Then he talks about hell. Which is a real place that in Jesus' day was the town dump with a constant fire.

The last five chapters talk about God, His part in this, and our part in this. Bell explains brilliantly the beauty of God, how He will never give up on us, how He gives us freedoms because He loves us so much, and how He has to play the relationship game by our rules by limiting Himself.

It made me fall in love with a Jesus I never experienced before.

One of the most interesting things that I found was a few paragraphs about separating from God by being surrounded by God. Something that I could relate too being surrounded by a Christian school and going to chapel and church every week. I thought about going to high school, never really living out that Christian walk and then going to Texas for a year where I was on my own and that separation away from my foundation back home brought me closer to God.

I was surrounded by godly influences, but lived separately from Him.

I lived away from godly influences, but surrounded myself with Him.

I think my freshman year of college is where I grew the most in my relationship with God. Something that I try to grow at this very moment. It was when I was "cut-off" from those comforts and foundation where I "bloomed." Would it be a stretch to say college saved my walk with God?

My review of Love Wins is a positive one. Something that you should read, and read slowly. I think I read it too fast. It's not a formula about heaven and hell or a recipe to how to live your life. It is, to me, another view to the beauty of God, encouraging people to discuss this topic of heaven and hell and what is reveals about God.

This whole concept of heaven and hell is destroying my brain. I've been writing this blog for a good couple of hours, getting lost in the commentary of other blogs that love/hate Bell. So many factors go into such a deep discussion. You have to get to the essence of God and humanity. It is tearing down the walls of my religious upbringing.

Here's a video I found through Facebook: