Everything/Nothing Leads to God

A simple observation: It seems that a people are most likely to turn to God when they have either everything or nothing.

If someone is doing 'OK' in life, they are generally unsatisfied but have this idea that if they could just get more stuff (money, power, etc.) than they currently have then they would be happy. I suspect that many people in western societies spend their entire lives in this unsatisfied state.

If someone has nothing, they will often turn to God for help. If they own nothing, if nobody will help them, they turn to the being they have heard is both powerful and loving. Fortunately for us, God is not too proud to be the God of Last Resort. He welcomes His children no matter which route they use to come home because He loves them more than we can imagine.

The unexpected part of this might be the suggestion that when someone has everything, they can turn to God. But don't we always see news stories about rich celebrities battling depression, or even taking their own lives? Of course, by 'everything' I am here referring to everything that a human mind has decided it needs from this world to be happy. That could include fame, money and power. But it will probably also differ from person to person.

Part of my own testimony of becoming a practicing Christian is that, at the age of 16, I had everything a 16 year old boy wanted. I had as much material wealth as I thought I needed due to parents providing me with a generous allowance, I had a girlfriend who adored me, I had friends in and out of school, I had a lot of freedom with my time outside of school and success within school. This wasn't the money, fame and power that some people might call 'everything', but it was everything I thought I wanted, so I was surprised to find myself unsatisfied. That was my clue that there must be more to life than all these things, so I fell into the group of people that turn to God because they have 'everything' and found that it wasn't enough.

Spectating is Good for your Soul

Sport is ancient, online videos are modern, but both have millions of people watching them.

It's easy to find negative things to say about spectators (the word itself even used as a negative description at times) because there are so many things where you could say that more people should be helping out with the work required in the world.

However there is a positive side to spectating the achievements of others.

C. S. Lewis once wrote in my favourite book 'The Screwtape Letters' that God wants human to able to celebrate their own achievements as much (but no more than) as if the same thing had been achieved by somebody else. If an architect looks at an impressively constructed monument, he should celebrate it's beauty the same regardless or whether it was designed by himself or a different architect.

Lewis wrote this as an explanation for how God wants our hearts to move away from pride, but his imagary also highlights for me the benefit of spectating. When you watch sports, you are practising the simple yet important action of celebrating others achievements. The more practised we become at that, the easier it should be for us to balance our humility in the way God intends.

There's nothing wrong with joy in your own success, and spectating is healthy because it keeps you well practised at taking joy in the success of others.

Forgettable Influence

An annoying thing I've spotted is that the times you are most likely to deeply influence someone are also ones that you are likely to forget.

I'm talking about the times that you give a piece of advice, teach someone something that you know, demonstrate something. The person you do this for, or in front of, feels that this is a huge revelation and they remember that moment for years. But if they speak to you about it years later, talking about "the time that you taught me..." whatever, you have no recollection of that moment, because for you it was a fairly ordinary one.

I've had this happen to me, and I've done it to others too.

I think the reason this happens is because the forgetful (or ordinary) moments are the ones most likely to have that big impact in the first place. If you are consciously trying to impart some deep wisdom, people pick up on the fact that you are trying. They know that it's coming from your head, not your heart. But if you say something succinct or take an extreme action with actually thinking about it too hard, then a person listening to or watching you will realize that this is something you genuinely believe, that it shapes your behaviour. That enables the feeling of big impact they get. They realize that this isn't just some pretty words, it's something you can live your life by.

The Barrier of Class

On an average day, I'm quite a friendly person. I am happy to start up a conversation with people who are like me, but also people of different ethnicity and people from a different generation, younger and older.

But I've noticed in myself that I suffer from a slight amount of Classism. This inclination to look down on, or at least be less comfortable around people from lower class backgrounds than myself is not something I chose (in fact I positively try to remove it from my character when able), it is just something which I think I picked up from parents and other sources as I grew up.

The main issue I have with this particular 'ism' of mine is that it appears to be the main barrier in my life to both effective community within my church and also evangelizing to those outside the church. I also wonder whether I'm not the only one.

For my generation (and increasingly so for younger ones) I think that racism isn't much of an issue due to the world becoming increasingly smaller thanks to technology. It is currently normal to live alongside people with origins from across the globe. So classism may overtake racism as the main barrier to building authentic communities.

When comparing the two, I also wonder whether the solutions to these two 'isms' are the same or different. The solution to racism began as education but was also largely helped by real-life contact, the opportunity for sheltered citizens to see that when you go to work or the shops, this person from another country has pretty much the same habits as I do. But class isn't part of your DNA in the same way your race is... unless by race we mean which country you are from instead of the pigmentation of your skin, in which case neither race nor class are part of your DNA, we are just talking about the culture (or sub-culture) that you grew up in.

Saying that the solution to classism is education seems ridiculous. Real-life contact can help you along, but when God asked his church in the Bible to work together as a single-minded community He knew that the main thing it would take is a decision to love each other. Classism is just one more issue I've spotted occasionally tugging my choices in bad directions and it turns out that it doesn't require a different answer than most temptations.

Ian, Why does God allow suffering?

I was recently given this question in an "Ask the leaders anything" session at a youth event, and thought my answer worth sharing here. As always, this is just my thoughts and understanding in life so far.

Part 1: Pain is Painful

I want to begin by saying that it isn't possible for me to give you an answer that will suddenly make whatever suffering you are going through bearable. Words and understanding won't change the fact that pain is painful. So check yourself; you may be appearing to ask for an explanation, but maybe you are actually demanding a solution. If so, you will be disappointed by any explanation given, and you were asking the wrong question.

If you are reading this because you want to find an answer for someone who has asked you about God allowing suffering, pay attention to whether they are asking because of their head or their heart. Are they asking because they are searching for truth, and are interested discussing philosophy? Or, (more likely,) are they asking because some suffering in their past or present is making them emotionally angry at your belief in a perfect, loving God. One requires facts and references, the other needs emotional help, and the biggest mistake you can make is to get them the wrong way around.

Part 2: The Big Picture, or People and Nature

The cause of a lot of suffering in this world is free will. God wanted to create beings that could freely choose to love Him, so He gave humans free will. Unfortunately that same ability allows others to make choices that can cause you pain, either on purpose or by accident. That risk has to be a part of having free will, because if God intervened in all of our bad choices then it wouldn't be free will at all.

But some suffering, such as earthquakes and floods, is not caused by human free will. In these cases, the cause is that the current world is "fallen", broken compared to what God originally intended. This again was technically caused by (Adam's) human free will, but such a long time ago that it doesn't really compare.

So in the grand scheme of things, why would God allow suffering to exist in the world?  Because his highest priority is not our comfort. A great summary of the book of Job I heard recently was "We live in an amazing, beautiful, complicated world that is designed to show us how awesome God is, but it is not designed to prevent suffering."

Part 3: But what about Me and my Darkness?

Everything so far has been about the general, all-over-the-world scale of suffering that happens. I have given some answers to that. But if you want to ask me why your particular problem is happening, then I'm afraid I don't know. Even if you tell me all the details, and I think of all the possibilities, I still can't ever really know why an individual thing has happened. God knows, and my daily faith includes deciding to trust His plans. But it's not all just plans, God has something important He does in these situations...

I heard a story once of a man who wanted to show God's love to his community by helping them in basic, practical ways. A poor woman said to him "Give me money, I don't have any to pay my electricity bills," but being quite poor himself at the time, he said "I'm sorry, but I can't give you any money." He saw that this response angered her and she was about to respond, but he felt God's spirit prompt him to quickly add "...but I will come and sit in the dark with you after they've turned your lights off." It wasn't the answer she was expecting, but it also achieved something she hadn't hoped for.

God isn't detached from our pain. He experienced pain Himself when Jesus came down to earth in human flesh, and today He is with us through the Holy Spirit. In this period of time when the world is still broken and people are selfish, God won't wave a magic wand to make you comfortable, but He will be with you, He wants to be beside you, even in the darkness.

Not Saying Amen

I was trying to do some morning devotions the other week. Just setting my alarm a little bit earlier, so that I could get out of bed earlier in the morning and spend some time reading the Bible and praying to God as a positive start to my day.

I'm not a 'morning person' so it was a bit difficult, but I managed it for several days. But I realised that it wasn't helpful for me to end my prayers with the word "Amen" when I did this.

This was because I was struggling to stay focused on the task (due to still being quite sleepy) and saying "Amen" when I finished praying was starting to feel like I was finished with the 'talking to God time' in my day and moving on to everything else.

This was obviously not the right way to think of life. God is with me all the time, and I generally aim to pray as soon as I feel like I have something to pray about. Jesus made it clear that we don't need special places or times to talk to Him.

But while the word "Amen" is a useful indicator for finishing a prayer when you are praying with a group of people, it turned out to be unhelpful when I prayed in private. It was like me saying "Goodbye!" to somebody I wasn't actually leaving. So I stopped using it.

Is Happiness the Meaning of Life?

Agnostics are people who are generally undecided on what they believe in. Or at least, they are people who would not say they have committed themselves to one of the major world beliefs. In western culture this indecision seems to result in them inventing their own belief system, but in a vague kind of way.

One of the most common things I hear agnostics say or imply, if they are ever talking about belief, is that life is all about happiness. This may be dressed in phrases like "follow your heart" or "be true to yourself". The core thing that decisions come down to, says this belief, is that I should be happy.

Unfortunately, there are issues with this belief.

Swearing

I wouldn't claim to have the cleanest sense of humour, but I do have cleaner-than-average language. I try to avoid swearing whenever possible, and generally succeed. The reason for this when I was a child used to be simply "because I am a Christian" but this isn't actually a very clear reason so as an adult I eventually had a think about my choices with the language I use.

When I gave it some thought, I realised that the question of "Is it OK to swear?" isn't going to have a single answer because there are two different types of swearing, and I need to answer this question for each of them separately.

Bad Christian Jokes

Sometimes it's fun to laugh at how bad something is, including jokes. So I have created the following list of jokes, which are common jokes given a rubbish twist by some imaginary Christian with no sense of humour...

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To convert the unbeliever on the other side.

What is black and white and rolls down a hill?

A zebra that God smited because it was proud of being on top of the hill.

Doctor, doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains!

I worry about the state of your soul.

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman walk into a bar. The Englishman points out that three men going into one place bears some resemblance of the Holy Trinity, but the Scotsman warns that such a metaphor would be heretical, and the Irishman prays for the Englishman's soul.

Christianity and Homosexuality

Christianity and Homosexuality is a big topic.

This post, more so than many of my others, is for the benefit of myself; I am attempting to organise and summarise my own thoughts on the issue so far. I do not intend or expect that I will bring anything new to the debate.

I am heterosexual, but I have known friends and colleagues who are gay. If you are a Christian living in this culture you are going to be questioned about your views on this eventually. It is a question of when, not if, that question will arrive. So it is worth calmly thinking about it beforehand.

The Vanity in My Novelty

Each of us has many different characteristics, opinions, hobbies and interests. Stereotypes, or sometimes weaker but still present links, are formed in all of our minds about which of these naturally link together. For example, we aren't surprised when someone with a quiet personality turns out to be an avid reader, or when someone tall and muscular turns out to be a regular sports player.

But I have spotted myself trying to avoid falling into such predictable categories and groups. I think that this is due to some fear of being predictable. As a teenager I considered the adjective "predictable" as the worst one that could ever be applied to me; I was determined to be spontaneous, mysterious, or interesting to everyone I met.

Short Story: The Husband Who Drank The Sea

Once upon a time on these islands there was a man who loved his wife. Just like today, these islands were small, but there was one main island that the man and his wife lived on.

But one day the wife got lost and found herself on a seperate island. She did not know how she came to be on that other island, so she did not know how to get back to her husband, and in her heart she missed him.

Now you may think that she could have decided to swim back to the main island. Or you may think that if she was strong she could have cut down trees and built a boat. But she could not do either of those things, because in that age the sea was not made only of water but also of fire.

The sea had always burned with bright orange flames that would burn any boat foolish enough to set sail on it. The water was cool and smooth underneath but bright and hot on the surface. The fire kept all of the islands apart.

Despite the fire and distance, the husband could see his wife on the other island, for he was a strong man. He knew what he would do because he loved his wife.

The husband went  down to the beach of the main island. Then he waded into the sea until the water was up to his neck. The flames were burning all around his head.

Then he put his mouth in the water and began to drink the flames that were on top of the sea. He drank and he drank, and his throat became so hot but the flames from all of the sea began to shrink.

Eventually there was only a small amount of sea flame left. The strong man drank this last part of the flame, and then he died with the fire in his belly.

The sea was now cool and blue like it is today, so that the woman was free to swim back to the main island. But she was not sure if she wanted to swim back to the main island because she had seen her husband die in the water and had mourned him.

But the strong man had both died and not really died. He appeared again, full of life, at the center of the main island. He was whole and healthy, but his lips were now as red as fire.

The woman saw her husband alive on the shore of the main island and was full of joy. She went into the sea and swam back to him, and thanked him for drinking the fire for her sake, and their love was strong.

Now, think of this; if I told you that you are the woman in this story, do you know who the man is?

Social Media and Intimacy

Talking with people face-to-face is a rarity today. As more of our friendships and relationships are maintained online, there are understandable questions about whether being "friends" means what it used to mean only a generation ago.

One of the interesting phenomenon that our culture became aware of quite quickly in social media was the apparent contradiction that a person with hundreds of "friends" online could feel extremely lonely. This has generally been explained by saying that our friendships on the internet are more superficial, or shallower, and that a person who only invests themselves in online friendships will miss the depth of those found in real life.

Offensive Grace

I had a chat with a colleague at work once about my faith. It was a good discussion, she was asking honest questions and I was trying to answer in kind, but by the end of the conversation she was confused and a little offended by the concept of grace.

Grace, as a word, is probably best known from the title and opening line of the hymn "Amazing Grace" which contains lyrics about joy and freedom. The definition of grace is to receive a good thing even though you do not deserve it. It is a free gift that has not been earned. So how does such a positive thing offend someone?

Games: Console vs. Cardboard

When I was growing up, I never had a console, but our family had a computer, and that was enough for me to spend many hours playing electronic games. Now that I'm an adult, I'm only mildly surprised that it is acceptable for adults to play video games, too. I have moved on from video games, but not from games in general; instead, I've become a player (and collector) of modern board games.

Christians Dating Non-Christians

The subject of Christians dating people who are not Christians is one to be careful with. It probably doesn't help that the subject only ever seems to be raised when someone is doing it and someone else wants to tell them why it is wrong.

Both sides of the argument about whether it is OK or not refer to a few bits in the Bible, sometimes the same ones! I am going to leave the task of interpreting scripture regarding this to minds smarter than my own. But I would like to describe 4 possible things that a person may consciously or unconsciously mean when they say "It's wrong for a Christian to date a non-Christian", and my thoughts on each motive or reason.

Bart Simpson vs. Christianity

Brother Faith: "When I was your age, I was a hellraiser, too.  My slingshot was my cross.  But I saw the light, and changed my wicked ways."
Bart: "I think I'll go for the life of sin, followed by a presto-change-o deathbed repentance."
Brother Faith: "Wow, that's a good angle... But that's not God's angle."
(Taken from http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF06)

The script above is taken from the episode "Faith Off" form the television series "The Simpsons". In the scene, Bart is talking with a Christian miracle healer called Brother Faith, and I think Bart poses an interesting challenge. Why not have fun as I wish for most of my life, and then ask for God's forgiveness at the last minute? When I watched this episode many years ago, I didn't know how to answer that question.

Knowing How the Story Ends

I think that it isn't such a bad thing to know how a story goes before you read or watch it.

This goes against one of the main methods Hollywood uses to keep making money, because one of the most common reasons people choose to watch a film is that they want to know the story. What happens? How does it end? This is particularly true of sequels where the audience has already been emotionally hooked to one or more characters.

How Supernatural Should Each Day Be?

As a Christian I am in a relationship with the God who created the universe. But something that Christians can't seem to agree on, and I am not sure about myself, is what this should look like on a daily basis.

Should a follower of Jesus be able to go for days at a time in quiet obedience with no supernatural events? Or should the nature of this relationship cause healing, prophecy and visions to frequently occur?

I do not want to be a miracle-chaser, someone who focuses more on the miracle than the Maker. But at the same time, I do not want to set my standards too low and miss out on the amazing things God might want to give me.

Discussion With A Seeker

The following is the outline of some major points covered in a discussion I have been having with a friend who is seeking to test the idea of Christianity. In some ways our minds work in a similar way, and so I was happy to spend time to think through any questions. The actual discussion happened across many hours on more than one day, but I remember the following 3 questions because in my opinion they were highlights or central points.

Christianity is just one religion out of many in the world, and there is so much within it to think about before I would feel I could commit myself to it.

There isn't enough time in anyone's life to sample or even evaluate every single human religion or faith. Even in Christianity, there is too much to assess within a single lifetime, evident by the fact that committed Christians never stop exploring and learning more about what they believe. Therefore it makes sense to direct your focus to a single question: Was Jesus really raised from the dead after His crucifixion?