Christians believe a lot of weird stuff.
Just stop and think about it.
It’s bizarre—like believing Jesus is God and that he came back to life, or believing he paid some cosmic debt we all created by the sheer fact that we aren’t perfect, or that when we believe in him the old part of us is somehow put to death, and we’re given new life.
It sounds strange, and I can totally understand how the more pragmatic, show-me-the-facts types have a hard time swallowing the truth of it, but every time I step back and look through those iron-sharp-black-and-white colored glasses, I find myself having another whole set of questions. And those questions have no answers that satisfy my skeptical, pragmatic heart.
How could so many people be so completely wrong over such a long amount of time?
How can I explain the changes inside of me—the hope, the overcoming of past hurts, the peace? There’s no way my therapist can take credit for all of that, and I certainly can’t.
How can everything just be meaningless?
I find no qualitative or scientific answer to any of those questions. Sure, people offer answers. Human development mumbo jumbo, psychological platitudes, and survival of the fittest propaganda.
But in the end, everything takes faith.
In the end, it’s not about how good I’ve been, or how much I’ve done, or my strength, or smarts. In the end, it’s about faith in the grace of God.
Some people think faith doesn’t matter. That if there’s a God he will surely bless those who have lived good lives and been kind and tried to do the right thing, and so they cheer for heaven and hope for the best, and totally ignore God and their immediate need for a strong soul cleaning.
But we can’t do it on our own. Trying to live right is great, and working your best to do good things is admirable, but what do you believe? Where are you putting your hope– your good intentions or God’s grace?
So when I hear people going on and on about how they live right, I get scared for them because that’s not going to be enough.
“For by grace are you saved through faith.”
Maybe that sounds harsh and unbelievable, but it’s the best news we could have ever gotten. Maybe that’s really why those skeptical people can’t quite bring themselves to believe. They just can’t get their mind around why the Almighty would love us so much and go to such great lengths to make us his and only ask us to trust him.
Do you know what you believe?
When you get right down to it, it’s not about a bunch of crazy beliefs or even our creed. It’s about a relationship between the God of the universe and you.
