a thousanD anD onE reasonS tO believE . 5

.hopE | reason fivE
.jesuS was right about everythinG
.we keep thinking that
somehow if we kill our enemies
or silence them
then evil will go away
when in reality
the problem isn’t them
or us
– it,s in both of us
in all of uS
.it’s the killinG
.the hatreD
.the violencE

.without jesuS, there’s no hope
for the worlD

.maybe i need to realizE
that i haven’t learned
to love my enemieS
.I’ve just changed
who,s on the lisT
.my hope involveS
Jesus saving everybody
and not just
the people
i think
are sinnerS

.1
.because i believe, i doubt
because i hope,i have a duty to faith in chrisT
i remember the stories
i wrestle with the questions
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hope
a thousand and one reasons to believE

a thousanD anD onE reasonS tO believE . 4

.incarnatioN | reason fouR
.olD testamenT goD smiting everybodY
.violence and killing babies and slaying people
for looking into the arK of the covenanT
.then a lulL
.not a whimper from goD
.and then
a whimpeR
.more like a crY

.thoR smiteS
.zeuS hurls lightning
.godS reign

dominate
demand servitude
worship and adoration
sacrifice and sucH
//
.jesuS comes
born a baby
in the maintenance closet
of the hotel parking garage
to illegal immigrants
from a trailer park
who can,t afford a hotel rooM

.on purposE

.how ironiC
.how anti|climactiC
.when we invent gods’
gods with tiny hands
born in straw
impotent
powerless
visited by pimply kids
who work at the local mCdonaldS


…are not the kinds of gods we invenT

.1
.because i remember, i doubt
because i remember ,i have a duty to faith in chrisT
i remember the stories
i wrestle with the questions
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hope
a thousand and one reasons to believE

a thousanD anD onE reasonS tO believE . 3

.gracE | reason threE
.grace workS
.what philiP yanceY calls thE mosT unnaturaL acT
seems to be
the only way
the world has a shot
at being saveD
from tit|for|tat
revengE
hatreD
the blaze of unforgivenesS
.maybe
jesuS knew something about the world
that we don’T
.maybe hE was a mystic
or someone crazy
or someone crazy wisE
but grace works
and we believed it
because we believed that jesuS
was a goD
.and we believed it
because we believe that jesuS
is goD

.1
.because i remember, i doubt
because i remember ,i have a duty to faith in chrisT
i remember the stories
i wrestle with the questions
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hope
a thousand and one reasons to believE

a thousanD anD onE reasonS tO believE . 2

.morE | reason twO
.it feels like we were made for something morE
.everything about this world
is screaming out that there’s more to reality
than what we can touch
and see and hear
and taste & smelL

.trees are arrows
pointing up and pointing down
goD is all arounD

.1
.because i remember, i doubt
because i remember ,i have a duty to faith in chrisT
i remember the stories
i wrestle with the questions
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hope
a thousand and one reasons to believE

a thousanD anD onE reasonS tO believE . 1

.blogs
from people who don’t like
the goD they find in the bible
who orders genocides
and tells his people
to even kill the babies
of their enemieS

.and i confess
my soul revolts in horror
that goD would order murder
and maybe more that i never noticed
beforE

?was it somehow (1)
not evil that goD did iT
?was it it evil (2)
and goD did it anyaY
?or was it evil (3)
and goD didn’t do iT

.no nonsense
it cannot be
that a deed is not objectively
bad or gooD
.it must be either good
or baD
.and no fair changing definitions
to make good mean ,,what goD does,,
and bad mean ,,what goD hateS,,
.that makes good and bad
indistinguishablE

for it seems that goD told us
both to love our enemies
and to kill them
and i’m pretty sure when jesuS said
to love our enemies
hE was probably intending ,,don,t kill them,,
as part of hiS orderS

.my soul revolted
my conscience screamed
for a few hours i think
i might have been an atheist
almosT

?why believE
?what good can there be in iT
besides avoiding
controverseY

.elie wiesel said
,,.because i remember ,i despaiR
.because i remember ,I have the duty to reject despaiR
.i remember the killers, i remember the victims
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hopeE,,

.because i remember, i doubt
because i remember ,i have a duty to faith in chrisT
i remember the stories
i wrestle with the questions
even as i struggle to invent
a thousand and one reasons to hope
a thousand and one reasons to believE

.brokeN | reason onE
.the world is brokeN .we have some crazy intuition
that something in this crazy world has gone horribly wronG
.something somewhere somehow within us weeps
like we somehow know the world was meant

for more than thiS .like it was made for something betteR
,like wE were made for something better

,like we were made for something morE
.the fact that my soul revolts to what

the biblE says goD did itself is a remindeR
that something in the world

has gone horribly
wronG

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