It's been an intense week of grieving.
Not grieving on my part per sé, but rather a week of coming alongside those who are experiencing tremendous loss. It can be a very helpless feeling, but in the midst of my paralyzed impotence, I have seen God move in ways I've never yet seen in this short life of mine.
You see, there is plenty of reason to despair. This family that is so dear to me has lost a loved one that, for all intents and purposes, did not "know Jesus".
That bit in quotes is said in my sarcastic televangelist voice.
What cause is there for hope when our religion dictates that all those who haven't prayed the sinners' prayer are in an eternal state of weeping and gnashing of teeth? No, our hope lies in uncertainty. Our hope lies in knowing that, whatever it is that happens to us once we leave our skeletons behind, it is not something we can rationalize or predict or imagine. Our hope lies in the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, not once we prayed the sinners' prayer. Our hope lies in the fact that He loved us first.
I say I saw God move in ways I'd never seen Him before because of a conversation I had with Manicotti. "If we as imperfect people can feel such a strong desire to see a person be saved, imagine the desire that God feels for that person."
That is a hope that only God can instill. And yet it is a hope based in uncertainty, in a healthy distrust of our own reason. What a fascinating God we love!
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But we do know. We do know what it means to truly follow Christ, to be chosen as one of his. He lays it out in the New Testament:
- Poverty
- Selflessness
- Obedience
- Purity
He tells the rich man to sell all his possessions and give the money to the poor. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven.
He tells his followers that unless they love him more than his family and themselves, they are not fit.
Multiple times he scolds people for wrong-living. The famous story of his mercy to the adulteress still ends in him commanding her to "go and sin no more".
Regardless of the sacrifice Jesus made, we are reminded in the epistles about the importance of purity and right living.
If *only* it was as easy as saying a prayer, then our grief would be even less. But unfortunately we have a watered down version of Christianity in North America...one that focusses on good feelings, love, and communion instead of on the tenents that the new testament actually preaches.
And if the God of the new is the God of the old, don't forget that God also wiped out the entire world's population with a flood, and destroyed cities like Sodom and Gamorrah...all for their sinfullness.
Do I believe in this legalistic view of the faith? I didn't...but the more I read the Bible, the more I realize exactly what the message is that its telling...and the more it pushes me to unbelief.
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