Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell

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VELVET Elvis
Copyright © 2005 by Rob Bell
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bell, Rob.
Velvet Elvis: repainting the Christian faith / Rob Bell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-10: 0-310-26345-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26345-6
1. Christianity and culture. 2. Christian life. I. Title.
BR115.C8B395 2005
261 –dc22 2005010352
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International
VersionTM. Copyright © 2001 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.
The story of Yvette on pages 90–91 is used with her permission.
Published in association withYates & Yates, LLP, Attorneys and Counselors, Suite 1000, Literary Agent, Orange, CA.
Interior design by FLANNEL
Printed in the United States of America

jump
Several years ago my parents and in-laws gave our boys a trampoline. A fifteenfooter
with netting around the outside so kids don’t end up headfirst in the flowers.
Since then my boys and I have logged more hours on that trampoline than I
could begin to count. When we first got it, my older son, who was five at the
time, discovered that if he timed his bounce with mine, he could launch higher
than if he was jumping on his own.
I remember the first time he called my wife, Kristen, out into the backyard to
watch him jump off of my bounce. Now mind you, up until this point he was
maybe getting a foot higher because of his new technique. But this one particular
time, when my wife was watching for the first time, something freakish
happened in the space-time continuum. When he jumped, there was this perfect
convergence of his weight and my weight and his jump and my jump, and
I’m sure barometric pressure and air temperature had something to do with it
too, because he went really high.
I don’t mean a few feet off the mat. I mean he went over my head. Forty
pounds of boy, clawing the air like a cat thrown from a second-story window,
and a man making eye contact with his wife and thinking, This is not good.
She told us she didn’t think our new trick was very safe and we should be careful.
Which we were.
Until she went inside the house.
It is on this trampoline that God has started to make more sense to me.
Because when it comes to faith, everybody has it. People often tell me they
could never have faith, that it is just too hard. The idea that some people have
faith and others don’t is a popular one. But it is not a true one. Everybody has
faith. Everybody is following somebody. What often happens is that people
with specific beliefs about God end up backed into a corner, defending their
faith against the calm, cool rationality of others. As if they have faith and
beliefs and others don’t.
But that is not true. Let’s take an example: Some people believe we were
made by a creator who has plans and purposes for his creation, while others
believe there is no greater meaning to life, no grand design, and we exist not
because of some divine intention but because of random chance. This is not a
discussion between people of faith and people who don’t have faith. Both perspectives
are faith perspectives, built on systems of belief. The person who
says we are here by chance and there is no greater meaning has just as many
beliefs as the person who says there’s a creator. Maybe even more.
Think about some of the words that are used in these kinds of discussions, one
of the most common being the phrase “open-minded”. Often the person with
spiritual convictions is seen as close-minded and others are seen as openminded.
What is fascinating to me is that at the center of the Christian faith is
the assumption that this life isn’t all there is. That there is more to life than the
material. That existence is not limited to what we can see, touch, measure,
taste, hear, and observe. One of the central assertions of the Christian worldview
is that there is “more”. Those who oppose this insist that this is all there
is, that only what we can measure and observe and see with our eyes is real.
There is nothing else. Which perspective is more “closed-minded”? Which perspective
is more “open”?
An atheist is a person of tremendous faith. In our discussions about the things
that matter most then, we aren’t talking about faith or no faith. Belief or no
belief. We are talking about faith in what? Belief in what? The real question
isn’t whether we have it or not, but what we have put it in.
Everybody follows somebody. All of us make decisions every day about what is
important, how to treat people, and what to do with our lives. These decisions
come from what we believe about every aspect of our existence. And we got
our beliefs from somewhere. We have been formed, every one of us, by this
complicated mix of people and places and things. Parents and teachers and
artists and scientists and mentors – we are each taking all of these influences
and living our lives according to which teachings we have made our own. Some
insist that they aren’t influenced by any person or any religion, that they think
for themselves. And that’s an honorable perspective. The problem is they got
that perspective from . . . somebody. They’re following somebody even if they
insist it is themselves they are following.
Everybody is following somebody. Everybody has faith in something and
somebody.
We are all believers.
way
As a Christian, I am simply trying to orient myself around living a particular
kind of way, the kind of way that Jesus taught is possible. And I think that the
way of Jesus is the best possible way to live.
This isn’t irrational or primitive or blind faith. It is merely being honest that we
all are living a “way”.
I’m convinced being generous is a better way to live.
I’m convinced forgiving people and not carrying around bitterness is a better
way to live.
I’m convinced having compassion is a better way to live.
I’m convinced pursuing peace in every situation is a better way to live.
I’m convinced listening to the wisdom of others is a better way to live.
I’m convinced being honest with people is a better way to live.