Sunday, October 14, 2007

I shared my "testimony" with a guy from church before I left for Darwin, and he had a question that got me thinking.

I said (in more than 4 lines)
Surrendered my own ultimate plan in Colorado
Started to search for God's plan and discern it in Winnipeg
Found out I had faith in Adelaide (after a long discussion about why my heart is so hard and why I feel distant and confused), acted on it.
Can't quite state the exact moment it happened, but I was in Fremantle thinking about talking to a Christan about a personal problem, and I had to think "Why bother?"

He said (In more than 3 lines)
I've been reading the book of Exodus, and was thinking about having a hard heart and why God would do that to us. I find what you've been saying encouraging, how your level of faith was constantly changing but you're still having this conversation. Do you think that God has made you question everything and give up for a reason?
Do we really know what we signed up for?

I volunteered for a political party when I was in college, more out of boredom than serious belief in their policy, and was slightly insulted when a man appproached me in the office and started interrogating me on various policy points. Do you really know what will happen to the economy? Are you aware of the cuts that will be made? Do you support the stance on crime? Do you know who will get hurt when these people get into government? I did, kinda. And gave him a half-intelligent answer. "But does it really matter? All I'm doing is delivering flyers and stapling things together. Don't you guys want people to support you and vote for your candidate?"

I went to church last night, more out of boredom than serious belief in Jesus Christ, and listened to the sermon, which I thought was a bit of a challenge. First of all, the topic was Jesus, and what the Christian church believes him to be. Not just our personal Lord and Saviour (which, by the way, I think may not be entirely accurate), but the supreme ruler over all creation. OK, lets back it up a step. The first-century carpenter's son who had a gift for healing and teaching and got killed for upsetting the status quo is the supreme ruler over all creation.

Was there before the earth was created. Is the one to whom we are all accountable in the end.

And I know that at least half the people in that room hadn't really thought about it that way, yet they didn't stand there staring blankly. They didn't question it at all. Why do they just swallow this blindly? Do they not realize the implications? Why aren't they running away?

Were they thinking, "Maybe this is a bit much, I thought Jesus was just a cool guy, but I want to spread a message of hope anyway?"

Maybe it is important, vitally important, to know exactly what we are a part of and what it means for everyone else.

Labels: