“Wholehearted Faith”
For a number of years I have been a fan of Rachel Held Evan’s books. I just completed reading Wholehearted Faith. This is the book Evans was working on prior to her untimely death in 2019. I am so glad this book still got published as it beautifully highlights God’s unconditional love for us and shows how this unconditional love challenges a number of questionable doctrines. In a chapter called “Beginning Again With Love” Evans talks about God’s love for creation and says “Embracing God’s love for creation isn’t some trite form of positive self-talk; it’s not a wave of the hand that says, ‘Everything’s good,’ or ‘We’re all fine.’ It’s the complicated, challenging, and unwavering conviction that every single person is created in the image of God and loved by God, even your enemies, and even you.” She goes on to say, “Operating from that conviction is no walk in the Edenic park, let me tell you. In my experience, centering my worldview and ethics around the inherent worth and belovedness of all creation makes me even more attuned to the seriousness of doing harm to God’s beloved. It makes me even more aware of my own capacity for destruction and desecration. Centering our conversations about sin around God’s love rather than our depravity raises the stakes, for it means that salvation isn’t just about managing your own personal sins; it’s also about restoring health and wholeness to all of creation.”
I believe Rachel Held Evans is on to something here. When we focus on God’s love for us and Creation rather than God’s condemnation, it changes how we look at ourselves, at others, and even at the world around us. God truly does love us. That has been made clear in more ways than we could count. In faith we must accept God’s love for us. This is, however, easier said than done. Many people find it hard to believe that God loves them but it is true. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. We may not feel worthy of God’s love but our feelings do not get the final word. God does. You are worthy. God says so.
God loves you and every other person on earth. This truth challenges the way most of us live our lives, especially how we see others. We often judge certain people to be unworthy of God’s love and treat them accordingly. This has created great strife throughout the course of history. It is the source of so many of our problems. God’s love of others challenges us to love and respect all people. We are to view people through God’s eyes, not our own tainted vision. What a difference it would make if we seriously attempted to do this. A “wholehearted faith” will lead us to do so.
Evans also points to the biblical affirmation of the goodness of Creation and God’s love for it. Here, too, we must learn to view the world through God’s eyes. Unfortunately, we are far more likely to view Creation through anthropocentric eyes. The many environmental crises we face today offers proof of this. Air and water pollution, climate change, deforestation, elimination of species, and many other issues have arisen from failure to see and love the Creation as the Creator does. In our arrogance and pride we have failed to remember that this is God’s Creation (not ours) and if God loves and cares for it, so must we. The true value and worth of Creation comes from its Maker, not what we think.
Jesus taught us that one aspect of “the greatest commandment” is that we “love our neighbor as ourselves.” May God enable us all to love ourselves, love everyone else, and love this wonderful world we live in. Doing this while loving God first and foremost surely is what it means to have a “wholehearted faith.” I long for just such a faith. Do you?
–Chuck