I know less about theology than I did when I was younger.

Theology was a good head game back then.

Theology was a distraction.

It was easier to get caught up in the structure than to simply understand and accept the gift of Christ.

I was tormented by the meaning behind the phrase “in the world, not of the world”.

How could I be good enough to escape being “in the world”?

I didn’t understand a lot…and I still don’t.

I believe in a simple Gospel.

I believe that I am loved by God…even when I am not loved by the people around me.

I believe that real love is a simple thing….and forgiving of my faults.

I believe that God’s love is different from what we consider love….or understand to be love.

I believe that there is a consistency to God’s love that the people around me can’t approach.

I need to cut the people around me some slack….they aren’t God. They can’t love the way He can.

That’s simple.

Simple….why can’t we settle on a simple understanding of the Gospel….and relax in the faith that we are loved?

It’s kind of funny….we can only relax in the trust that God loves us when we can relax in the knowledge that, in spite of all our shortcomings and human frailty, we are worthy of love.

Worthy….not because of who we are and what we know and have accomplished…but because of His grace.

We don’t earn His love.

There is no pecking order in our attempts to love God.

Maybe that’s why the phrase “the least of these” is so appealing and powerful.

Theology is a funny thing.

It greases the wheels of structure.

It keeps the earthly and intellectual satisfied.

It lets us build our own Tower of Babel in our minds.

God reaches down to us.

I can’t jump high enough to reach God.

Still, I reach for something I hope to understand.

I reach….even if I have already been touched.

It’s so simple….why can’t I rest in that knowledge?