Annoying. Those who know me know I use that term a lot. My dad used to say aggravation a lot. Everything aggravated him. Guess I'm the same only I use the term Annoying. Lots of things annoy me.
In a long session of just sitting on my back porch after a 30 minute bike ride, I got to thinking about the church today and how relevant is it to today's generation. This generation is growing up in decidedly the most advanced and comfortable life ever in the history of humankind. In the Bay Area of California, where I live, I believe we are the most progressive, successful, comfortable, wealthy people of all time. We should be the most worry free. People from our past would have thought they entered heaven if they could be in our place.
Yet, our pain; our anxieties; our suffering - is as real to us as the pain suffering of any previous generation.
As I considered history, I thought that it must have been easier to witness to God's love and the future joys of heaven to people in the past whom (for the most part) had to literally work until they were tired virtually every day in order to just survive. That can hardly be said of the majority of us today. Sure there are pockets of people who struggle to get enough food -- even here in the Bay Area. But that is hardly the norm. In fact, the overwhelming majority of us have the ability to have vast amounts of unbelievably tasty food delivered to us, merely by pressing some buttons on our phone and asking for it.
But, as I said, our pains are just as real to us. So, you'd think the messages of God's love and the future joys of heaven would still be compelling. Yet it doesn't seem that these messages are relevant to the world.
I considered why I felt that was the case. That's when I was again confronted with my feelings about how some aspects of God can be really annoying
Probably the big annoyance is that strong believing Christians can pray for things and these prayers go unanswered. Consider calling a friend and asking to borrow something and having the phone go dead. That's how it often feels. Wouldn't that be annoying?
Secondly, why can't we have regular, undeniably real events that can only be attributed to by God's transcendent intervention into creation? Seems that would be a great way to witness to the world.
It's no wonder that so many folks have turned elsewhere for their "religion". They've tried ours but it doesn't "work".
My history is one of those who discovered that praying to God doesn't work. As a young boy, I embraced the teaching of the church to give ones heart to God and relate to him in prayer. I did feel a closeness to him. But as I got older, I got bullied at school; parents and teachers would punish me for forgetting to do what they wanted me to do; and although I wanted to be included, I found that many times, those who could care less about God were the most popular and seemingly the most happy.
So, asked God why that was the case and got no answer. Eventually, in what is now an obviously idiotic approach, I decided that I would be anti-God -- sort of a way to get back to him. I guess I thought he'd show me that he was real by punishing me.
Eventually, I realized the ridiculousness of that approach. I remember realizing the absurdity of yelling at God: "You can't make me believe in you!"
Looking back, I now know that I had to come to God on his terms not mine. It is still kind of annoying but just because it's annoying doesn't make it not true.
God waited until I was ready to accept that he is in charge. Until I was ready to accept Him unconditionally. Ready to listen and learn about the real God -- not the god I wanted him to be.
Yet, even now, I'm one of those who is a card-carrying believer in Jesus Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. Committed to the truth of the Bible. And yet, I am also one of those who's prayers "don't work". Even heartfelt prayers for the salvation of others; or bringing about relief of pain -- for the good of His kingdom, not for my own benefit. I'm not the one in pain. But healing someone, wouldn't that be a wonderful witness to His love, grace and power?
Nope. No response. Often after days and even longer of continuous prayer.
Annoying.
So, why do I bother? Why do I continue to hold to a faith like this? Well, the truth is that I have experienced miracles. Sadly, a skeptical outside observer could come up with a plausible explanation of how these things occurred. But to me, they are miracles. Miracles are like pain - each person has their own and you can't look at someone and say "yours is not real". We know how we feel.
All these things I thought while sitting on my back porch contemplating why the church is not relevant today. And as often happens, I found myself asking God that question and asking him what we can do about it. It was then that it occurred to me that I needed to tell people. That, for some crazy and not particularly efficient reason, God has always chosen people as his primary means of reaching other people. Witnessing.
It was then that I decided I needed to write to my blog about it. Maybe someday someone will be encouraged by these to learn more about God. I kinda doubt it but here it is anyway.
May your journey lead you to a saving faith in the living God.
No comments:
Post a Comment