Comment on Josh's doubt on "arriving" anywhere
Josh,I don't know if this will help you, as I look to you as a mentor and rarely dish out thoughts and comments. I think that your thoughts are profound and I still feel that I have a long way to go... as we all really do.
Anyway, I am so grateful for all of the research you did in order to get me those books for Christmas. They really have opened my mind to new ideas as well as expansion on old ones.
I was surprised to read that you are struggling with doubt on "arriving" anywhere. Which I think that you might have been saying that you struggle with coming to conclusions, or maybe that the conclusions you come to change after a while. The comments that I have on this come from Adventures in Missing the Point. I hope this will help you out.
There were a few different chapters that stressed these points, and I am going to give you my own combo of insight gained.
First of all, instead of wanting to arrive anywhere with your thoughts on Christianity, be open and willing to take in more and more information, research, and opinions. Pray, discuss your questions and doubts with other Christians. The reason I say this is because, you are never going to arrive anywhere if you want to learn more about God. How can we, as humans, ever grasp the concept of God or of absolute truth? It is when we "arrive" somewhere that we stop learning and start being stubborn, rigid, and small-minded about what we believe. It is like we would be saying that what we believe is the truth and perhaps what other Christians believe is off. Aren't we all "off"? You are never going to arrive at any conclusions, instead you will have theories, new theories, theories that change, and a lot of questions. God is such a mystery... You know that, You told us that at Dar's house. You also said that if God wanted us to know the truth about everything, He would have revealed Himself to us. But, for some reason, faith is very important to God, so he chose to let Himself be a mystery. One thing we do know for sure though, is this. He is there, He sent His Son to be a sacrifice for us, so we would be forever free from sin, and in a scense free to sin. (Not because we want to, but because we will never be perfect and He still loves us).
Another point I would like to make is this. Doubt is not necessarily a bad thing... though it can be. Doubt can also be a good thing. This is, first of all, because it is part of growth and can lead to research and discovery of new ideas. Doubt is normal. Everyone has it, without it, we would be so content in our faith we might not have hunger to go out there and learn more. Doubt often leaves us in a spot where we just have to let go and rely on God. Sometimes it's the opposite, because we may be doubting so much, that we hang on to it, but that does put us in a spot where we pray a lot of frustrated prayers, which don't go unheard.
Anyway, some of what I learned from Adventures in Missing the Point was that we are never going to know the truth about everything. A lot of other valuable things I learned were how the church and Christianity really warped the true meaning of the Bible... not everything, but a lot. I don't think that this has been intentional, I think this has been learned. (e.g.)It's how we grew up and it is what everyone in the Christain church believes and it is good to be unwaivering on your opinions. Stand up for Jesus or you are a coward and luke-warm, therefore will be spewed out of God's mouth. Well, the problem is this: We may just be standing up for the church's image of Jesus. The Jesus in the Bible, the real Jesus, I now believe, is a lot different than the church's perception of him. If we would just stop being so lofty and judgmental, perhaps more people would be drawn to him. A lot of people just don't like Christians. I don't really like the image of Christianity. It makes me feel sick to my stomach and judged. Jesus didn't make people feel that way. I pray that I stop making people feel that way. We need to really sit and read the Bible as whole stories, whole prayers, whole parables, entire books of records, etc. and not all chopped up into pieces like we do. Imagine if you took two sentences out of this post and then made conclusions out of them, or arguments based off of them... you could not have even caught the point that I was trying to make. Too often, we butcher the Bible in that way.
Well, I can go on forever, trust me, but I would love some feedback... also Brynn's in timeout and I have to go get her out. (My kids are far from perfect.) :)
-Jorie
posted by Jorie @ 1:35 PM
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