Even the bad news is good news

Went to church today and the message was spot on. Our minister’s message was about learning to look at all of our life through the lens of Jesus’ teachings. Our decisions, actions, work, conversations, positions, values… all that we are, should be guided by, and based upon, those lessons that we have learned from the stories of Jesus.

It truly is Good News that God loves us and that Jesus has redeemed us through His sacrificial death. And now, if we choose to accept that we are sinners and recognize that our path to redemption, to returning God’s love, is to listen to Christ, to follow His path… then we have our work cut out for us.

“Many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14) He died for everyone, we all have that freely given offer of salvation, but following Jesus’ teachings runs contrary to human nature. Evolution has given us instincts to favor survival — yet Christ calls us to serve others. When we are in danger or attacked, our nature calls us to fight or flight — yet Christ tells us to turn the other cheek when someone strikes us, that if someone demands we give them our coat, to give our shirt as well. And that is just the easy stuff: it gets harder, my friend.

Following Christ’s teachings is choosing to pass through the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13), while being led by our instincts, following human nature, is walking down that “wide road” and entering into the “broad gate”.

It’s not the easy way, not popular or safe, so not many go that way. In fact, it’s impossible. To learn the way that Jesus teaches us to live, and then to actually live that way (to look at all you do through the lens of His teachings) — as much as you may want to do this, you will fail. As much as you may believe that this right, that it true, that it is good —you will fail.

More Good News: even though living a Christ centered life is impossible for us, for God all things are possible. I’m really happy about this and I want to share it with you because I’m the most retched sinner I know. There’s no hope for me but for the Grace of God. As my minister once said, if I believe that God exists, that the wages of sin are death (eternal separation from God), that Jesus really was the Son of God who redeemed us, paying the price of our sin by dying on the Cross so that we may be saved (reunited with God) – if I believe all this to be true, then how much would I have to hate you to not want to share it with you?

Yes, I know it bores you, makes you mad, sounds silly or stupid. But the fact is I love you and want you to know this story. Please humor me and read on. How about this? If you read to the end and it still sounds stupid, leave a comment and tell me where I went wrong. Deal?

Why do people believe in God? I’m sure there are countless reasons, some that are beyond my grasp. Some say that they believe:

  • In order to make sense of it all,
  • Because they grew up in the church,
  • Because they want to be good,
  • Because they hope for eternal life

Why do people choose not to believe in God? Again, there are as many reasons as unbelievers, but I’ve heard (even shared) a few:

  • Because religious people are sometimes so bad,
  • Because there are so many contradictions in Bible,
  • Because it’s just a myth,
  • Because they can’t see God,
  • Because science renders God unnecessary or impossible.

Another necessary question, one that I’ll get to later, is: what does it mean to “believe” in God.

All I can honestly do is to tell you why I believe in God. Here’s my story:

When I was a boy, my parents went to Church. At least they frequently went to church. I was blessed with two good parents and an extended family that, as far as I know, usually went to church. My parents took my sister and I to the Baptist Church. I went to Sunday school, heard Bible stories, sang songs, then sat with my parents during the service and mostly drew on the program. Doodles, really. Mostly armies of stick figures in battles, driving tanks, and jumping out of planes with parachutes. I think that’s fairly normal. But there were bits of dogma that snuck in through the sermons and songs and lessons. I knew I was a Christian. After all, my parents were Christians, right? So basically, I took in on authority that God exists, Christ was the only sinless human, He died for us. Makes sense. Kind of.

Then sometimes things came up and we didn’t go to Church. Maybe we went to see Grandma instead, or went to the lake, or just stayed home. There was a fairly extended period where we just didn’t go. I think my dad had an existential crisis and lost commitment to regular attendance. My dad worked on a transmission line construction crew with Texas Power and Light and he was gone a lot. He was also very tanned. When I was in kindergarten or first grade I asked my mom, “In Sunday School we sing that song about Jesus loving the little children, you know, all the children of the world? Red and yellow, black and white? Mom, what color is my dad?” This wasn’t a racist question. I was just curious and really wanted to know. Turns out he was white and I had just created one of those family stories that lived forever.

After a few years of skipping church, my mom says to heck with this – if I’m going to take the kids to church by myself then I’m picking the denomination. So my sister and I began attending the Christian Church. Yep, in addition to the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Pentecosts, Catholics, and Seventh Day Adventists, there was a denomination of Protestants that simply called themselves “Christian”. I’m sure there is a story there somewhere. Anyway, we’re getting dressed up, going to Sunday School, doodling through sermons and the occasional baptism when one day, riding home in the car, I asked my mom, “If God created all the Heavens and the Earth, then who created God?” I bet you asked the same thing, right? Seems innocent enough. Well, mom didn’t answer that question for me. Nope. She said I should ask the preacher, so I naively agreed to setting an appointment with the guy up front who talks during the doodle ceremony. And what do you think happened? Yep, he didn’t answer that question either. Just said that there are some things that are mysteries to us mere mortals and we would have to wait until we met God and then He could tell us.

I had some other questions, like why was Heaven up and Hell down since, with the Earth rotating and all, those were really the same direction, and what about animals souls? And how do we know other religions have it wrong? But I was never going to be able to ask anymore questions because he’d already launched the what it means to be saved speech and convinced me to be baptized next Sunday. Now, I had my doubts about all of this, but I didn’t want the preacher to think I was a heathen, so a week later I was all wet. Confused, hopeful, and now a little bit guilt ridden about pretending to be “saved” when I really didn’t think I deserved it. You see, at the time I was in the fifth grade and at the height of my cussing career. I was also quite interested in sex even though I didn’t know a thing about it.

As you might have guessed, what followed was another extended period of skipping church entirely. I soon developed from a bratty kid into a totally deplorable teen, found absolutely no interest in sports, couldn’t find my place anywhere in the junior high social hierarchy, and escaped into motorcycling with a few other rejects. About this time I slowly started questioning everything. Like haircuts. And why all this schooling when we’re apparently all going to die in a nuclear war. And patriotism: the loudest all American rednecks seemed to hate me and my two or three friends who just want to cruise around, listen to a little rock ‘n roll before we get drafted and shot at. So, religion? That’s just a crutch for the weak and wounded. My parents were wrong about that just like everything else. We’re all on our on here. You only live once, right? I guess I’m an atheist.

Except… I like to read. I liked to read everything. And I like being skeptical. So I read the books my sister was reading in high school. Things like Brave New World, Black Like Me, and Siddhartha. Then there girls, and drugs, and Vietnam War protests, and mathematics. So, yeah, I’m an atheist and reading Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley, and then in college, there’s philosophy and logic and… wait a minute: I loved Aldous Huxley ‘s work and I’m reading “The Perineal Philosophy” when I’m forced to realize that it takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a believer. So, I guess I’m agnostic. I mean, I don’t know. Am I?

Next comes heartaches, searching for meaning in life, dropping out of college, living in a tent, seriously hard labor, and living on a shoestring budget. And during all this I’m reading the Bible. I’d never read it before. I must have read a thousand books, but never the Bible. For some reason, it seemed unreadable. Too long, even though I’d read books that were longer, even trilogies and series. I’d read science fiction, textbooks, encyclopedias, philosophy, poetry, fiction… everything except for the Bible. Too remote, even though I’d been hearing snippets all my life. But now I read it front to back, three times: first King James, then the Revised Standard Version, and the Living Bible. I still have my copies of the last two (King James was borrowed). What I had assumed was an anthology of cultural fables began to read like an authentic historical accounting. If this had been made up, they would have cleaned it up a lot more so that it would at least appear believable. This book is explaining, in the best available terminology of the authors, events and knowledge that are beyond human comprehension. It has been handed down as an oral tradition, recorded by many people, copied by hand countless times, edited and sometimes condemned and destroyed, translated repeatedly, and always fought over. It is is filled with contradictions and duplication, it is miss used and completely misunderstood. It rings true to me.

The Bible had put me off before because of the insistence that it was the unerring, divinely inspired Word of God. There was never any mention in church of how scribes May have changed the scriptures, of of how translations cannot retain original means, or of the influences of Constantine or “canonization” by groups of men such as the Council of Trent. But most of all, it had seemed to me that it was the Bible that was being worshipped, not God. I think these feelings toward the Bible were mostly handed to me from men who couldn’t answer questions.

At some point during that third reading, I think it was in Acts, I stopped. It was in the middle of the night, after a marathon reading session, and I’d reached an impasse. I said this prayer or something like it: “God, I really don’t know if you are there or not. I want you to be there, hearing this. I want to believe you are there. I want to believe there is a soul, and eternity, meaning and value, good and a purpose for living. I want to learn to love and serve you. But I’m unsure. I don’t know how to have faith. I’m not able to make that leap on my own. I’m asking you to help me. I need you to show me in some way how to believe.”

In that very moment I felt God there with me. I’m tempted to say, “God’s presence” but that doesn’t seem adequate. It was like flipping a switch and suddenly I knew God was in the room with me and everywhere else. Everywhere. Beyond where. I didn’t understand, I felt. And I also knew instantly that this was forever, that I could never forget and never doubt or deny. In just the same way that I could “know” or “be sure” that a friend was with me – present there with me at that time and place – I knew that God was with me, but more so. I cannot explain that experience further. I can’t share it any better than with those words. I wish I could. I was given what I asked for and I want you to know about it. I wish I could say that I was suddenly a better person, but I am still the same sinner I was before. It’s just that now I’m thankful — I know I’m blessed. I know God loves us.

Since that moment, I’ve had a multitude of experiences and realizations that are equally difficult to convey. For example, I know that God hears my prayers. Prayers are conversations with God. Sadly, I talk far better than I listen. We tend to consider prayer as asking for help, like I did, but it’s okay to not say anything. Just try to be quiet for a little while and open some space in your life to make room for God. Most of the time I don’t even know what to ask God for, but He knows what we need. (Ephesians 3:20) What God desires for us is far beyond anything we can conceive of. But, in our misunderstanding, we often think that what is Good means what is blissful, pleasant, and happy. We know so little and are so sure of ourselves.

So, what does it mean to “believe” in God? That’s called faith. I realize that I’m out of my depth talking about faith.

To have faith, to believe in God, commits you to action, to service. It means you’re no longer on your own. As a Christian, you have to start but learning all you can about Christ. Learn his teachings and follow them: be open to dreams. To believe in God, to have faith, means that your own desires, those that elevate you and your position, don’t really have a compass other than preservation and following human nature. Dreams from God, His plan for you, if you trust Him, are vastly better- but more challenging.

God will put a vision before you and then you have to be prepared to exercise your faith in seeing that vision fulfilled. Chances are that this dream will be a complete surprise and very different for anything YOU wanted. But you’ll know it’s God’s work because it’s consistent with Jesus’ teachings. It will require decisions and sacrifice. It won’t be easy and people will doubt you. It may take a long time and you’ll come to doubt yourself and be tempted to give up. The work and worry is always a part of serving God.

Faith is the catalyst that allows God to empower you, that allows you to begin making that connection.

Mark 9:23

Everything is possible for he who has faith.

Mathew 9:29

According to your faith it will be done unto you.

Hebrews 11:6

Without faith it is impossible to please God