The heart of the good news

In Bo Caldwell's book, "City of Tranquil Light," the main character, Will Kiehn, is a man seemingly destined for life as a farmer in the Midwest, who finds himself called by God to travel to the North China Plain in the early twentieth century to labor as a Mennonite missionary. At the end of the book, Will, now a widower in his 80's who lives in a home for retired missionaries, says:

"Over time I have come to believe that God's will is a mystery, fluid and surprising. Following it is like stepping into something I cannot see, and I am frequently unsure about whether I am doing God's will until after the fact. But I have learned that while I don't always know when I am doing something right, I always know when I am doing something wrong, and I rely on this as I go forward, trusting that He will use my mistakes as well as my triumphs and knowing that He does not ask me to be perfect, or even good. He simply asks me to be His, which to me is the heart of His good news: that I am deeply and passionately loved exactly as I am, despite the faults that grieve me most, by a God who delights in me more than I can know - a God who created me so He could love me. With the gift of that renewed certainty when I awake each morning, I rise to meet the day and to praise my dear Lord, and to finish my course with joy."

Indeed this is the heart of the good news: God loves me deeply and passionately exactly as I am.

It is not possible to understand the God of Jesus Christ except as a God of love. Such love is never comprehended simply by the intellect. Such love, to be comprehended must touch the soul; it must be experienced.

In Bo Caldwell,s book, it is the lifetime of relationships with family members, spouse, fellow Mennonites, neophytes who respond to Will's preaching, even those who do not come to faith in Christ, it is this lifetime of relationships that reveal a loving God to Will Kiehn.

God's love for us is mediated by the experiences of each of our lives. As Richard Rohr writes in "Things Hidden, Scripture as Spirituality," "God comes to us disguised as our life."