Monday, July 30, 2007

Why I believe in God

Because to deny God is to deny humanity.

Honestly, to deny God for me would be the same action as denying my humanity. To be human is to recognize my finite perspective and limited world view among other humiliating experiences like going to the bathroom and forgetting social security number when I am making a wire transfer for the first time.

The more information one attains, and the better one gets at living life the more one should realize how limited we all are.


However, I struggle with giving people the grace to be human. I have a hard enough time accepting my own humanity, which could be why I have a hard time accepting a God who loves me personally. I do not even like myself most of the time.


This is why faith is so fascinating and exciting.

God is so far beyond me and the Kingdom is impossible in my own understanding, yet I find myself apart of creation on a small level. Created by a creator with the possibility of entering my world view and changing my perspective forever.

I like being apart of a creation.

I enjoy being created by a creator.

I love thinking about the possibility of God entering my world view.

The Gospels are a human story of a Devinne God who messes up the order of humanity through the character Jesus. Jesus (God's Son) wrecks the social order and demolishes the standards set up by intellectual and spiritual men. The systems set in place could not contain the ridiculous nature of Christ, The Son of God. He was told to go to hell, or in their words, "crucify him" because he did not align with the teachings of his day.

The simple act of the Kingdom are when the tables are turned on society. The social order in disaray. The blind see, the week become strong the sick are healed. Those on the outside of society, ie theives, prostatutes, beggers, cheets, the unclean etc are brought inside. They enter the kingdom which they do not deserve but is theirs. The place at the table which was reserved for the finest guests have now been handed down to the least of these.

This is the person who does not belong, this is the person I relate to in the story, this is why I believe in God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Judeo Christian God that is represented through the Son of God, Jesus and who is at work in Creation through the Spirit of God.

Awesome.

I hope this is encouraging to any one who ever asks the question:

"Am I still a Christian?"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

good stuff dude. good stuff.

andrea said...

your words give me hope and help me enter in to something greater.

Josh Nolt said...

hey man...

i typed this...then lost it...so here goes again.

i think at first when we start the journey of following Jesus we begin in the way you describe - as the whore, the beggar, the greedy one. However, somewhere along the way we cease to identify ourselves with that characteristic so much as someone who's been cleaned up. We begin to take our seat at the head of the table as if we've somehow earned a 'holy' right. Somewhere along the way believers and the church as a whole looses their identity with who they were when they were called: NOBODY.

it's not so much what you're saying that's profound...what's more profound to me is our nature to drift into being somebody and something that we're not. what i believe you laid out is not a response to 'Am I still a Christian?' rather it's a good picture of what a Christian is through and through.

thanks for your thoughts bro...