Love Wins: Chapter 8 "The End Is Here"

Rob Bell recalls how as a boy he invited Jesus into his heart. He reflects on how important that moment was and is in his life. He also observes that there are many ways to deconstruct that experience and cynically discount its meaning. Bell affirms that God meets us in such experiences and we are not to discount them. We are to embrace them. Each of those moments are necessary for us to arrive where we are and become part of the invitation to trust and believe that we are loved and are being made new.

Bell warns us against the cynicism and skepticism that undermines our trust. He assures us that the love we fear that is too good to be true is actually "good enough to be true." Jesus is inviting us to be drawn into the love which "takes over every square inch of our lives." But this love requires a death, a humbling, a leaving behind of the old mind. It requires an opening up and loosening our hold in order to expand, find, hear, see, and enjoy (p. 196).

There are strong images of judgment in the Bible and Bell mentions a few of them. Bell's claim is that these are warnings that the choices we make, the paths we take, have consequences and opportunities offered once are not generally on offer again. Jesus is reminding us in the parables of judgment that our decisions are to be taken seriously. Jesus is urging us in each and every moment to live like the end is already here.

Yet Bell concludes that in the end love wins because God is love and Jesus has come and does come to bring that love to life.