God Even Uses Oprah

I know some people believe that God only uses blatantly Christian things to teach His children lessons that pull them closer to Him. I disagree.

For instance, I am reminded of a lot of spiritual lessons through music. Songs from "So This Is Love" from Cinderella to songs like "The Wizard and I" from the play Wicked to songs like "Gravity" by Sara Bareilles remind me of the Lord, what He does for us, what heaven will be like, and what love is supposed to feel like. Movies like Stranger Than Fiction remind of grace sacrifice, and what it means for us to give up everything for something we may not fully understand. I had a client tell me that the book Portia de Rossi (Ellen Degeneres' wife) wrote helped her realized she had an eating disorder. And a few weeks ago, I was reminded of God's commitment to me by watching Oprah.

Oprah took one entire audience to Australia to celebrate her farewell season. Now, Oprah's post-modern, relativistic approach to spiritually rubs me the wrong way a lot of the time. I feel sad that she takes all religions and homogenizes them into "being spiritual." However, she interviewed an Australian man, Kristian, who has been diagnosed with intestinal cancer. He made a video and posted it on YouTube as a tribute to his wife. They have two young sons, and he's unable to work due to the cancer. The boys know Daddy is sick, but they're too young to fully understand. And his wife, Rachel, has to keep working to pay their mounting medical bills.

During the clip of his interview with Oprah, he said this:

"The reason I do the chemotherapy and put up with everything that it brings is for them. So that, one day, when I beat it, they will know how much I love them by what I went through for them."

Wow. That totally made me think of God and his commitment to us. I feel like God would change it up to say this to you and me:

"The reason I came to Earth and went to the Cross and put up with everything that happened is for you. So that, one day, when you finally trust Me and we beat the things in life that pull you away from Me, you'll know how much I love you by what I went through for you."

This humbled me immensely, and I immediately wrote down the quote so I could remember it and blog about it. It's so easy to get caught up in thinking God just has a list of things for us to accomplish before we die. His to-do list for His kids, if you will. Or that He is watching us to see how well we measure up to His list of dos and don'ts. We forget that He endured the unimaginable just so we could have a glimpse of the depth of the love He has for us. He's hoping that, by seeing how much He went through, it challenges us to trust ourselves with Him. To throw ourselves into His arms, knowing that it's the safest place for us because of the limitlessness compassion and love He has for us. There's a whole lot of theological terms we could throw out to describe why He went to the Cross, but Kristian's quote reminded what it's really about: loving us. Showing us He stopped at nothing to give us a reminder, in the Cross, that could never be attached to us earning it. Instead, it would always be proof that He did it because that's Who He is.

What everyday or out-of-the-box thing has God used lately to remind you of Himself and what He did for you?

Oh, and if you want to see the video Kristian made for his wife, Rachel (it really is amazing), watch it here: