When Love Matters Most of All.

A few short weeks ago I walked across the stage to receive a diploma. Well, to receive the thing that my diploma goes in (I still haven't received my real one, though I just checked and the internet says I graduated, so I assume I'll get it one of these days).

Anyway, a three year ride through seminary has landed me with the lofty sounding degree of a Master of Arts in Christian Thought. And while I had high hopes of mastering the art of Christian thought, the old adage has proven true: the more you know, the more you know you don't know.

It stinks, really. All the philosophical and theological jargon packed somewhere into the back of my brain hasn't made me smarter. If anything, it's made me less certain of every last peripheral thing.

It's not that my faith has been shaken. That's not it at all. It's that the plethora of debated arguments about God don't rile me up like they once did.

Everyone has reasons for believing the slight variations of Christian theology they ascribe to and the reasons are often quite good. There are a lot of smart people out there - a lot of smart people who are a lot smarter than me.

What I've found over the course of three years and a few weeks of decompressing (which I'm sure will take years) is that the battle isn't over theological specifics - it's over love.

That battle is over what love looks like and what it should look like when it's found in us.

If there's one thing that I've grown more certain of over these past few years - one thing that I'll stake it all on - it's that love looks like Jesus.

And that love - that love of God so fully embodied in Jesus - is so massive and powerful that it's terrifying - it's terrifying because it sweeps you up and carries you off in a way nothing else can.

I know, I know - it's all a whole lot more complex than this and it should be. But sometimes it needs to be as simple as this. Jesus' love changes everything and Jesus' love hasn't changed since the dawn of time.

So, now that I've left seminary and get to do more of the tough work of ministry, that's what I'm focused on: humbly following the love of God in all of it's terrifying splendor.

Because that's what matters most of all.


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