God so loved the world

Several years ago when I was doing my Local Preacher training, a group of us were asked to explain why we believed in God. We were told we had to give our answer taking a maximum of 3 minutes.

I've pondered my response quite a lot over the past few years, but still not managed to get it down to 3 minutes. Often I think I can give a really easy-to-grasp explanation, but then I have to expand a few details here and there and end up taking longer than I want. The reason we were challenged to do this, was because our speaker said that "the average person" won't listen to church goers talking about God for longer than 3 minutes – if we haven't said something worthwhile in that time, we've lost them. Trying to sum up all the amazing things that God has blessed me with, in less than 3 minutes, and trying to put over how my faith has been tested and grown over the years, in such a way that someone who isn't remotely interested in God might find intriguing, is a tall order. Which bits need to be said in 3 minutes and which bits can be left until later?

During this time of Lent, as we head towards Easter – the despair of Good Friday and the joy of Easter Sunday, there is much to ponder about God. How great is that love, that suffered all that for me? Am I really worth all that? How can I ever respond? Did Jesus ever doubt that I was worth all the suffering? I'm not just pulling these questions out of thin air – they are questions that I mull over on a regular basis. It's a challenge to me that Jesus would still have gone to the cross if I had been the only person in the world. And, dear reader, he would still have gone there if you had been the only person in the world! Jesus believed we were worth it. And no matter how much we think that "God" is difficult to grasp or understand, his love for us is so amazing, and his grace is so wonderful, that he really does think we are worth the suffering of all the horrible things that happened during that first Holy week, ending up with death on a cross.

Back to my first point about trying to condense why I believe into 3 minutes. There is a danger, in my eyes, of making something so wonderful, into something far too simple. But, I sometimes wonder if God would say that there is a real danger of me making something so simple, into something far too complicated.

John's gospel in chapter 3 has the verses: "God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that everyone who has faith in him may not perish but have eternal life."

Simply put. Simply love. Simply for you!

Kate Marr