Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts." The cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, "Me too.
Rob BellLove is giving up control. Itโs surrendering the desire to control the other person. The twoโlove and controlling power over the other personโare mutually exclusive. If we are serious about loving someone, we have to surrender all the desires within us to manipulate the relationship.
Rob BellWhen we get to what happens when we die, we don't have any video footage. So let's at least be honest that we are speculating, because we are.
Rob BellMy experience is that lots of people go to church, sing the songs, tell the story, etc but have profound ambivalence about God.
Rob Bell