I remember when I was in elementary school my teachers would encourage and reward the kids who asked questions. My peers always seemed to have the best questions. Questions like, “what does 3X squared plus 5 equal?” or “what is the gravitational pull of our solar system?” I always envied the smiles my teachers gave as my classmates asked these questions. I tried to ask questions too, but mine never seemed to result in that same smile. My questions were more like, “when is recess?” and “how many times am I allowed to use the bathroom in one day?”
There is a guy at my church named Joel who is the elder of our High School group. Joel is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. Every now and then Joel will fill in for our college pastor and lead a Bible study for college students. I, like many others, get really excited when Joel leads these Bible Studies. One of the most amazing things about Joel is that he hardly ever gives you any answers. He just asks really good questions.
I grew up in a church where the Bible was referred to as the ultimate answer book to life. This was exciting to me because I knew that if I had any problem in life, I could get a direct answer from God by just searching out what He said in the Bible. This excitement, however, quickly started to disappear when I graduated high school and found myself befriending more people who chose to not follow Christ. My excitement started to diminish because my new friends had some really good questions, and when I went to look for the answer in the Bible, I found nothing.
My friends wanted to know why Christians hated homosexuals, why we supported war, why we seemed to have such little regard for our environment crisis, and what scientific evidence we had to support the theory of creation.
No matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find very good answers to these questions. The things I learned in Sunday school didn’t seem to answer their questions in its entirety. My whole life, I had answers to these questions that worked great for me and my Christian friends, but as soon as I tried to answer these questions to my non-believing friends, I felt like an idiot. I said my answers with such little confidence. I didn’t believe what I was saying so how could I convince them to believe it?
For the first time in my life, my Sunday school answers didn’t work. Not only did they not work, but they felt ignorant. And that made me upset. My friends weren’t trying to put me in a corner, forcing me to defend my faith. They sincerely just wanted to know my heart behind these issues. But here I was, feeling like I was trying to sell them a product that I had never bought myself.
The truth is that I was scared of homosexuals because I was led to believe that they were the enemy, not image-bearers of God himself. I was taught that whatever the Republican Party said was true and of God, even if it meant going into a war at the cost of thousands of lives. I was taught that this earth was just a temporary home for our eternal souls and that our focus should not be on taking care of the planet God gave us.
I started to have questions of my own.
What did I really believe?
Why did I believe it? And “What was Jesus really all about?”
I read through the first book of the Bible recently hoping to discover some of the answers to these questions. When I finished, I had more questions then when I started. I started to wonder if this book wasn’t meant to answer all our questions about God, but rather, to thrust us into the mystery of God. I mean, I don’t read the Bible and think:
“Oh, that’s who God is!”
I read the Bible and think, “Holy crap! God is way bigger, way more mysterious than I originally imagined Him being!”
I wonder if the writers of the Bible were more focused on showing us how big, how amazing, and how mysterious this God we serve is, than giving us all of the answers.
I mean, what if the Bible really was the “answers-to-all” book? What if it did completely describe God in every way possible?
I don’t want to serve a God who we can write a book about. I don’t want to serve a God who can be contained in a couple thousand pages. The God of the Universe, the God who created this whole thing…. That kind of God can’t be written about in one book. That kind of God needs an eternity to reveal to us who He really is.
The Bible is an amazing book. I believe every word of it is inspired by God and is profitable to all people. I believe it is the most amazing book we have on this earth. But the Bible is not God. God is God. The Bible only gives us a glimpse of this amazing God we choose to serve.
I want to serve a God who is bigger than my questions. I want to serve a God who doesn’t get afraid when I ask some really tough questions and raise serious issues.
As Christians, may we not be people who seek to have all the answers. The more answers we have about God, the more skeptical people get. The more skeptical I get. May we be a community of people who point others toward the mystery of Christ. May we acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers, but that we serve a God who draws us to Himself through awe and wonder. Let us not only ask questions, but let us enjoy not having all the answers to an all-mysterious, all-powerful, all-wonderful, and all-knowing God.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Grace- What's That Smell?
I remember one day in 1st grade I threw a dirt clod at one of my classmate’s face from across the playground and it broke his glasses. I got in trouble. I was confident that my mom would spank me when I got home, and that I would be grounded for life. Neither happened. I got “the talk”, but thankfully no beating. My mom has always shown an incredible amount of grace in my life.
I’ll never forget one particular day growing up where I had done something wrong and I felt so guilty about it that I had faked being sick so I could miss school. The reason I wanted to miss school that day was because I had felt so badly about what I had done that I felt I needed to admit my faults to my mom (I’m kind of a Mama’s Boy). I knew preparing myself to tell her my horrible sins would take all day, hence the reason I chose to miss school.
I literally spent all day crying and wrestling with the thought of how I could tell my mother that her son was the devil himself. When she got home from work that day, I asked her if I could have a minute to talk with her. She agreed and we proceeded to take a seat on the couch. Before I could get out a single word, I began to sob. I cried for about 5 minutes without saying a word, and then my mom said;
“Son, please tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me”
I managed to get out a few words and she somehow understood what I was trying to tell her through my snot and tears. She smiled and put her arm around me. She didn’t say much. But I do remember her telling me that everything was ok.
Growing up in the church, I have come to the conclusion that we are really good at showing grace… to people who choose not to be a Christian. A couple popular slogans in the church world are; “come as you are!” or “Jesus hates the sin, but loves the sinner!” These are just a few. I think just about every Christian church would claim to take anybody in because we believe that we are all saved by grace. I am not knocking this attitude of grace toward people who choose not to believe, or even saying that it is wrong.
I guess my biggest question is: “Where does the grace go after someone chooses to be a Christ-Follower?”
There is a story in the Bible. It’s a really old story of a guy named Manasseh. Manasseh was a King, but apparently not a good one. According to the story, Manasseh killed a lot of innocent people and sacrificed children to idols. This kind of behavior made God pretty upset.
There are two versions of this story in the Bible. The first account of this story comes from a book called 2 Kings. In this account the author tells the story of Manasseh and all the bad stuff that he did during his ruling. And then he quickly ends the story by telling us how bad Manasseh was, concluding with the location of his death.
The second account of this story is found in a book called 2 Chronicles. The author sharing in this account tells the exact same story, but he doesn’t end so quickly. The author in 2 Chronicles tells us that Manasseh did some really bad stuff, and made God really upset. So God orders an army to arrest him and take him to another city as a prisoner. But as Manasseh is on his way to this other city, the author tells us that Manasseh begins to cry and pray.
And God hears him.
In fact, the author shares that God was actually touched by Manasseh’s prayers of repentance and orders the commanders of the army to take Manasseh back to his home.
It seems that there are two messages trying to be presented. One author seems to feel like it is important for his readers to know that Manasseh was a sinner and that he made God angry. While the writer in 2 Chronicles seems to feel like the story of Manasseh is about so much more than just his hang-ups, but rather about a God who hears the cries of those who screw up.
People told me that I needed to believe in God because I was a sinner, and I needed to be forgiven of my sins. So based on that message, I chose to believe. I have learned that isn’t a very compelling message, and thank goodness I have slowly begun to see that following Christ is so much more than that.
People showed me a lot of grace before I started following Christ. But once I was “in”, that grace seemed to slowly disappear. It started to feel like this idea of grace that the church was presenting was only a way to get me to join the club. And once I was in, the grace disappeared because I was now held to a “new standard”.
I have a friend who likes to pass gas and it stinks, really bad. Sometimes I get so upset with him, but within minutes I always find myself laughing. Not because I enjoy the smells of his body, but because I soon realize that I pass gas too. And mine stinks.
The Bible says tells us that God’s mercy for us is brand new every single morning. I think it says that because every day I screw up. I need God’s grace every day. I needed God’s grace before I chose to live for Him. I needed it the day I chose to follow Him, and I’ll need it today as I choose to try and be more like Jesus.
I mess up a lot. That’s why I’ve made the decision to follow Christ. I realized that by myself, I am capable of really messing things up and really hurting people along the way. I need to serve a God who pours out grace every morning. I need a God who is strong in my weak spots. I need to serve a God who doesn’t just show me grace as a flashy way of getting me “in”, but continues to show grace as I learn what it means to live more like him.
My friend’s gas stinks. But so does mine. And guess what, so does yours! J
God’s grace is here today. It’s here for people who choose to believe in Him. It’s here for people who choose not to believe in Him. It’s here for people who have no idea what to believe.
May we never forget that God has been gracious to us. May we show grace and forgiveness towards others as we learn to live in it ourselves.
I’ll never forget one particular day growing up where I had done something wrong and I felt so guilty about it that I had faked being sick so I could miss school. The reason I wanted to miss school that day was because I had felt so badly about what I had done that I felt I needed to admit my faults to my mom (I’m kind of a Mama’s Boy). I knew preparing myself to tell her my horrible sins would take all day, hence the reason I chose to miss school.
I literally spent all day crying and wrestling with the thought of how I could tell my mother that her son was the devil himself. When she got home from work that day, I asked her if I could have a minute to talk with her. She agreed and we proceeded to take a seat on the couch. Before I could get out a single word, I began to sob. I cried for about 5 minutes without saying a word, and then my mom said;
“Son, please tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me”
I managed to get out a few words and she somehow understood what I was trying to tell her through my snot and tears. She smiled and put her arm around me. She didn’t say much. But I do remember her telling me that everything was ok.
Growing up in the church, I have come to the conclusion that we are really good at showing grace… to people who choose not to be a Christian. A couple popular slogans in the church world are; “come as you are!” or “Jesus hates the sin, but loves the sinner!” These are just a few. I think just about every Christian church would claim to take anybody in because we believe that we are all saved by grace. I am not knocking this attitude of grace toward people who choose not to believe, or even saying that it is wrong.
I guess my biggest question is: “Where does the grace go after someone chooses to be a Christ-Follower?”
There is a story in the Bible. It’s a really old story of a guy named Manasseh. Manasseh was a King, but apparently not a good one. According to the story, Manasseh killed a lot of innocent people and sacrificed children to idols. This kind of behavior made God pretty upset.
There are two versions of this story in the Bible. The first account of this story comes from a book called 2 Kings. In this account the author tells the story of Manasseh and all the bad stuff that he did during his ruling. And then he quickly ends the story by telling us how bad Manasseh was, concluding with the location of his death.
The second account of this story is found in a book called 2 Chronicles. The author sharing in this account tells the exact same story, but he doesn’t end so quickly. The author in 2 Chronicles tells us that Manasseh did some really bad stuff, and made God really upset. So God orders an army to arrest him and take him to another city as a prisoner. But as Manasseh is on his way to this other city, the author tells us that Manasseh begins to cry and pray.
And God hears him.
In fact, the author shares that God was actually touched by Manasseh’s prayers of repentance and orders the commanders of the army to take Manasseh back to his home.
It seems that there are two messages trying to be presented. One author seems to feel like it is important for his readers to know that Manasseh was a sinner and that he made God angry. While the writer in 2 Chronicles seems to feel like the story of Manasseh is about so much more than just his hang-ups, but rather about a God who hears the cries of those who screw up.
People told me that I needed to believe in God because I was a sinner, and I needed to be forgiven of my sins. So based on that message, I chose to believe. I have learned that isn’t a very compelling message, and thank goodness I have slowly begun to see that following Christ is so much more than that.
People showed me a lot of grace before I started following Christ. But once I was “in”, that grace seemed to slowly disappear. It started to feel like this idea of grace that the church was presenting was only a way to get me to join the club. And once I was in, the grace disappeared because I was now held to a “new standard”.
I have a friend who likes to pass gas and it stinks, really bad. Sometimes I get so upset with him, but within minutes I always find myself laughing. Not because I enjoy the smells of his body, but because I soon realize that I pass gas too. And mine stinks.
The Bible says tells us that God’s mercy for us is brand new every single morning. I think it says that because every day I screw up. I need God’s grace every day. I needed God’s grace before I chose to live for Him. I needed it the day I chose to follow Him, and I’ll need it today as I choose to try and be more like Jesus.
I mess up a lot. That’s why I’ve made the decision to follow Christ. I realized that by myself, I am capable of really messing things up and really hurting people along the way. I need to serve a God who pours out grace every morning. I need a God who is strong in my weak spots. I need to serve a God who doesn’t just show me grace as a flashy way of getting me “in”, but continues to show grace as I learn what it means to live more like him.
My friend’s gas stinks. But so does mine. And guess what, so does yours! J
God’s grace is here today. It’s here for people who choose to believe in Him. It’s here for people who choose not to believe in Him. It’s here for people who have no idea what to believe.
May we never forget that God has been gracious to us. May we show grace and forgiveness towards others as we learn to live in it ourselves.
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