I love how my wife comes up with things like "big idea monday" and "prayer sunday" and such like. Marrying a genius for the win!
There's a lot of discussion these days, within and without of Christian faith communities and other faith communities about the value of religion in society. And I have to say that I agree with most if not all of the critical things said about "religion."
I don't know anyone who says, "You know what the world needs more of? Religion. If people would just hold more tightly to their un-scientifically-verifiable beliefs the world would be a better place." Even as a church planter with a lot of friends who are pastors and missionaries and various religious professionals, I don't know a single person who wants to be known as "religious," or feels being more religious would help them in any way. In my experience, no one wants to be religious, myself included. Of course, that doesn't mean that I am not actually religious or that everyone in the world is any less religious by nature for all of the wanting to not be.
Did you know you're going to die?
Seriously. You might think about it every now and then.
I've been having some great conversations with some new friends about some deep, important stuff. Difficult or joy-filled experiences, the meaning of life, unexpected suffering, God, sex, beer, you name it. It's been a fantastic few days of getting to know some new, amazing people, trying to read between the lines and figure out what makes them tick. Why do they get up in the morning and keep trying to live? Not just merely breathe, but really live. Where do they find joy, and where do I find it? Can we learn something from each other?
It's such a tender, touchy thing, faith. It's always personal and it's always dear. It's wise to tread lightly, and to seek to understand before seeking to be understood. It's why people get up in the morning and keep going. It's why people stay married or get divorced or join the military or protest legislation or abstain from their desires or experiment with drugs or write blogs every day. And it is never scientifically verifiable. And everyone is more than a little insecure about that.
Faith is what you're betting your life on. And make no mistake, you are betting your life on something.
If you're honest, you know that you have no way to know with laboratory tested, sterile certainty that the way you are spending your life and the trajectory you are on is really going to give you the outcome you want, and there is no system that can prevent the one outcome that is certain.
So what are you betting your life on?
Hopefully you've put some thought into this. Hopefully you're using your brain. I mean, no one wants to waste their life on a fantasy. We need to live in the real reality. We ought to use science to make some kind of determination.
But it seems like all kinds of scientists in all kinds of different fields have all kinds of different reasons for doing what they do every day. A lot of people seem to have mystical or supernatural experiences, but they're no better than the scientists.
Do you just decide to forget the question and get back to work, or play, or whatever it is you're into that feels like a good distraction? Do you really think that will work?
Some people have given up the hope of living and settled for breathing, or maybe are too scared to try to live and too scared to stop breathing. But is it really better to just keep breathing and not pursue the hopes and dreams that are written into the nature of your soul (if you really have one)?
My purpose is not to just ask a lot of silly questions, but hopefully to demonstrate the necessity of faith in order to live. It is an unavoidable part of being human, despite what some people might want you to believe.
So what are you betting your life on?
I'm at least trying to bet my life on the Person who heals people everywhere He goes, infuriates the know-it-all religious authorities, brings together people of every language and color and quality, and who after dying came back to life to live forever, and who claims the power and authority to judge the living and the dead. I think that He might be on to something.
But by all means, do whatever seems best to you. It is after all, your life. Are you who you want to be?
Nice post! So, let me answer your question with a question. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is true that most of our major life choices are made without apparent scientific rigor. But suppose they could be! There are myriad things that we can verify through observation and experiment today that used to be articles of faith.
The question is, should we accept the fact that certain matters are only matters of faith with acceptance or inquiry? Could we, for instance, document modern miracle claims, and catalog them according to their veracity? Could we apply scientific methods to evaluate religious claims?
This is a big question that a lot of smart people disagree about (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-overlapping_magisteria). For my part, I wonder if there isn't more to it than simply "making a bet," where the outcome might as well be random. My own experience is that I have the most faith in the things that I have observed to work; I find that prayer and meditation on the Scriptures makes me more compassionate, hopeful, and emotionally healed. I find that singing heartfelt songs to God with my arms raised above my head gives me a relatively reliable experience of the numinous, and augments the aforementioned prayer/Scripture experience. I have reports from people that I respect of more miraculous encounters with God, so any explanation of how the world works has to take those into account in some way.
Is there something to be gained by looking at the religious experience of humanity and applying Occam's razor? Or would that, in some way, violate faith?
"...seek to understand before seeking to be understood"
ReplyDeleteJosh, a good little internet nugget ....signed, Most-Often-Misunderstood