Velvet Elvis - Remix

I'm re-reading Velvet Elvis. I haven't read The Shack yet, though almost everyone else I know has read it. But I don't always like to be "in" so I am reading Velvet Elvis. Again.

I like the way Rob Bell writes. It makes me think. And he is witty and insightful and sarcastic. All the qualities I think I possess. Except he is humble. :)

But I just love that he says things that sound heretical, but then backs them up with thoughts and questions and what ifs that make you go "ohhhhhhhhh."

Chapter One (or movement one as he calls it. Why? I have no idea. Probably just to be different because that seems to be his nature, or at least the way I perceive his nature.) In movement one he uses the idea of a trampoline to describe God. Seriously. A trampoline. And for those of you who have read the book, feel the freedom to come back tonorrow. Maybe I won't be writing about Velvet Elvis.

The springs of the trampoline, he proposes are the tenets (the doctrine) of our faith. Things like the trinity, the virgin birth, should you drink or not, or should priests get married. These are the springs. And he points out that if one of the springs should fall off or break that our entire faith is not busted. Just that spring. The springs are what hold up the mat. (I guess the mat represents our faith in whole). He uses the trinity as an example. The idea of a "trinity" didn't exist until hundreds of years after Jesus died. It is a "spring" that was added, but faith in Christ existed before that particular spring. Make sense?

But then he likens some people's faith to brick walls. That if one of the bricks falls out, the whole faith is void. It falls. It crumbles. I have seen this happen with people. What they thought they knew about God changed, (He didn't change, but their perception did) and suddenly the brick they hold in their hand, the one that got ripped out, their perception-of-God-brick, doesn't fit back into the wall anymore and the wall wobbles. I like that Rob says, "That's how it is in Brickianity." Clever. Some of my friends in brickworld, pulled out a brick and realized they didn't want a brick-based faith, so they started jumping instead. I've lived in brickworld and practiced Brickianity. I like jumping better.

All that to say, I am jumping on the mat and exploring the strength of my springs right now. Some of them are really being stretched. I'm not sure they will hold. But the mat will.