What You Look For, You'll Find

I watched Rob Bell's "Everything Is Spiritual" DVD last nite. As usual, Rob brought the awesome.

It's a DVD from his first speaking tour, filmed in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan in July of 2006. (I blogged about Rob's second speaking tour, The Gods Aren't Crazy, that I caught in the ATL last Novemeber) This one features Rob on stage with a giant whiteboard that he fills with a dizzying array of facts and commentary, mostly based on the Creation Story from Genesis. From quantim physics to Spinal Tap references, it somehow all flows together. It's entertaining, informative and highly inspiring.

One of my favorite parts comes towards the end where Rob says "In this world, what you look for, you'll find." In other words, if you want to be a pessimist, you'll find plenty of things to be pessimistic about. If you want to be a cynic, you'll find plenty of things to be cynical about. But if you want to find God at work in our world and be in awe of his grace, forgiveness and plan for your life, well, you'll find that, too.

The other big idea was that everything, indeed, is spiritual. In the Hebrew Scriptures there is no word for "spiritual." And Jesus himself never uses the phrase "spiritual life." Because for Jesus and his tradition, all of life is spiritual.

To paraphrase the Psalmist, "Everything you do, do it for the Lord." What's so exciting to me about this concept is that everything means EVERY THING. So whether I'm playing with my kids, doing a job I don't want to do at work, listenting my neighbor complain about her mysterious ailments, rocking to the White Stripes, buying a $4 cinnamon dolce latte, blogging or b-balling, somehow it's all spiritiual when it's done with the right frame mind. Somehow God makes sense out of all the things I like to do, along with all my mistakes and messes (I give him PLENTY of material to work with) and incorporates it in to His masterplan. That is mind boggling. But I love it.

Everything is spiritual, indeed.