God Saves

Recently, I had the opportunity to give a cardboard testimony - one of those silent videos where you write your former life on one side of a piece of cardboard and then flip it over to reveal your new life in Christ. As I thought about what I wanted to say in such a small space in such a short time to a world with such a short attention span, I wrestled. 

I wrestled because God has done so much for me in my life. I wrestled because how do you shrink a whole life down to one little piece of cardboard? I wrestled because I wondered what part of my testimony is the most powerful, which is the most important, which would most need to be heard by the audience, which was most relatable. 

As I struggled to figure out what to write, I realized that one particular message was taking shape in my heart. Just one. It didn't matter what my starting point was, what life circumstance I started with, what scenario I wanted to share, what scene of my story came to mind, the outcome was always the same: 

The thing that has changed my life the most, the thing that makes my today a today instead of a yesterday, the thing that has shaped me in the most powerful way is God's love for me. 

Whatever I decided to use as my starting point, my ending point had to be "Beloved," for that is the only thing that has truly mattered. 

When we think of God and all the ways we want Him to change our lives, all the ways we want Him to fix things for us, love is rarely our first choice. 

Honestly, most of us are looking for the God of the Old Testament, not the new one. We want the God who comes blazing in with pots of fire and swords and slingshots. We want the God who smites those who stand in our way. We want the God who cuts the foreskins off of our enemies. We want the God who has a promise and keeps it, come hell or high water (literally), who parts the seas and tears down the walls and marches His people out of slavery and exile and back to a place called home, no matter what the powers that be say. 

We want the God of lightning and thunder, the God who shakes the foundations of the world.

But Hosea says that's not our God. Our God doesn't save with war or with weapons (1:7). 

He saves with love. That's this prophet's whole story, and when I look back on my life, it's mine, too. 

And that, my friends, shakes the foundations of the world.