@powertochange:

Confused? That’s Ok

Written by Eric Reynolds

December 6, 2011

Sometimes it feels like God is playing a cosmic game. I know He isn’t, but it feels that way sometimes. God, why? Why did you make this world? Why do things hurt and why don’t you intervene right now? If heaven is so great, let’s skip all of this. Why doesn’t any of this make sense? Are you even real? Do you ever ask these questions?

GRACE

Welcome to the confusing and crazy religion of Christianity. It’s the religion of grace. Unlike any other, Christianity relies upon grace for salvation and “not [good deeds], lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:9). Grace is God’s gift, His goodness bestowed upon us, His presence with us. Grace is God’s favourable disposition to our plight. Grace is kind of like a divine smile in your direction, but more like a divine gift for your soul. Undeserved and unattainable if the giver does not give.

But if you’re like me, you know that things turn from fairy dust to gritty, salty dirt pretty quickly.

FAITH

You need faith to get grace. Faith is the kicker. You won a free car but you can’t drive it without gas. Faith is gas, the key, the portal through which we must travel. We have been told, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Well then I guess I want faith, eh?

What is faith? “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Heb 11:1). But faith isn’t all that easy, now is it? Certainty and assurance are ever-elusive. Faith is inherently difficult for the simple fact that it doesn’t make sense. It defies logic. So if you are going to call yourself a Christian, you better set your logic aside when considering the nature of faith. I’m not opposing use of the intellect or wisdom or God-given thought processes. But I am saying that God, the object of our faith, is outside of our brains.

FREE WILL

If faith was logically comprehensible and grace could be achieved by a simple summation of facts, like a religious algorithm, then 99% of the world would be OK with God. Atheism would be laughable. If God was an equation, deduced by invariable factors, very few would argue his existence and none would struggle with faith. Why? Because there would be no need for faith. I don’t need to have faith to believe the desk exists. It just does. I bumped my knee on it and spilt my coffee on it and it’s still dirty because I haven’t cleaned it! Sometimes I wish God could be that obvious.

But imagine a world in which there was no faith required. God could be understood in the mind and reasoned into existence. Life would be robotically easy, really. And not only that, but God would be unworthy of our praise and eternity with him would become a bore.

God has set up a different plan. He has chosen to veil himself, and is pleased by faith. He holds our belief, trust, and hope in high regard. You can’t believe, trust or hope in something without surrendering to it. That’s what He wants! That’s what He deserves. Another word for surrender could be humility. A humble surrender of our will.

HUMILITY

It’s Self versus God in this life and the battle never ends. I wage it now as I write. It was Self as god that started this mess and it’s Self today. Nothing has changed nor will it until Kingdom come. Why? Because Self is so very, very compelling. We can see Self: we can count on it, most of the time and can control it, usually. Self is all we have! Isn’t it? I mean, Self accomplishes things and Self can choose and Self seems to look out for me and seems to have my best interests in mind. I can talk to Self (don’t recommend this) and I know for certain what Self is up to. Self doesn’t make me change if I don’t want to, and it usually applauds me.

And yet, these truths do not satisfy. Is there more to this life than Self? If there is, I should hope that there’s not only more, but that the “more” is greater than me. Unchanging. Good. Powerful. Just. I need, and deep down desire, for strong and tender hands that can carry every burden I give them. I need, and deep down desire, perceptive and humble eyes that can see me with compassion. I need and deep down desire a life-giving presence to walk with me. (Sounds a lot like Father, Son, and Spirit.)

God continually asks me, what will you choose? Self or Me? Who is your god? When we embrace humility (in body, mind and spirit), it takes us right back to the top: grace.

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Grace is the illogical and incredible answer; it just takes me a while to get there some days.