So easy to forget
Oddly enough, in the week in which husband finished four years of theological study, I had a mini crisis of faith.
It happens every so often. Questions come up. Is God really real, or just a nice construct to make me feel better? Am I wasting my life being a Christian? Do I just 'do' Christianity because my family does? Why aren't there more people who follow Christ? Why is each day a struggle for holiness?
In these times I have to think logically and rationally rather than rely on feelings and emotions.
I sat down, remembered and verbalized the reasons why I am a Christian. Just for the score, here they are:
- If you were trying to invent a god, you wouldn't invent the Christian God. He's so far from what we humans want. Giving up a son for an enemy people? Dying to bring life? From a human standpoint of power, victory and prestige, God looks like a loser. In our natural mindset, love is not strength, and his character is love. You couldn't make him up if you tried, which tells me there's got to be something in it.
- Creation is so incredibly incredible. Let alone what I see around me in nature, the things I know about the human body are astounding, and the things I don't know about the human body are innumerable. It can't have just happened. There's got to be someone behind it.
- The historical evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Christ is considerable, and the accounts of the gospels are what anchor me.
- Christians are in general, the most giving, unselfish, wholly transformed people I've met. I hasten to add that there are of course, generous and loving people who are not Christians, and also that there are Christians who are not generous and loving. However as a whole, I think the character of God does come through Christian people, better than I have seen of other peoples as a whole.
- In my own life, there is so much evidence of God's provision and so much answered prayer, I'd be a fool to say it's all coincidence. And I have felt the warmth of the Holy Spirit, and I have had weirdy kind of conversations with God on the odd occasion. I can't say my own experiences were wrong and not valid.
- Am I wasting my life? Well, if I wasn't a Christian, what would I be doing? Living for myself I expect. Even if God is a fairy tale (which I'm sure he's not) the way people live 'for God' is a good way to live.
I am convinced of Christ's divinity and I follow the Christian evangelical faith because I believe it is true, real and essential to understanding myself, God and the world.
If you're not convinced, it's a good time to think about it. Ask God for some answers. You might be surprised.