'Christian' and 'Agnostic' is an
unintentional pairing, incongruous in the extreme, and utterly wasted. Some
followers of Jesus unnaturally couple the explanatory nouns Christian and Agnostic
by their own behaviour. Why would and how could committed Christians live in
such a way that at the most elemental planes of existence they are uncertain?
How could they be content with that? The
truth is, they acclimated themselves to this ambiguous version of Christian
living. It just seemed to happen. They busied themselves with daily routines of
necessary chores and pleasurable distractions and marginalized their contact
with God. They failed to know God or discern God's participation in their
lives. They construed scripture as an ancillary resource and regarded prayer
with infrequent relevance. How could
they think that this is what God expects? The "they" is
"we" and "me," and that's what this series of thoughts is
purposed to disclose.
Neither am I sitting in judgement, nor I
trust, are readers jumping to pejorative conclusions about me. Something about
which I am convinced, is that God wants us to know him. He wants to be known by
me. That is a discernible explanation for the Bible, which I understand to be a
self-revelation. In the Old Testament scripture, God revealed his character,
which emphasized his love, righteousness, justice, wrath as well as his
promises. With the New Testament God revealed Jesus who is God's character in
human flesh. I am also confident that God wants me to converse with him, talk
to him about all the regions of my life, in other words, to depend upon him. It
was Jesus who invited followers to call God, 'Father.' That speaks to me of relationship rather than mere ritual. I cannot
think that God is satisfied with my uncertainties.
A self-assessment is vital. The measureable
criteria cannot be my proficiency gifts, my work record, my academic
achievements, my artistic abilities, my church involvement, or the number of my
friends. The analysis must consider what is actually happening in my mind and
my emotions with respect to God and how I relate to him, listen to him and
speak to him. Only as those proportions bump up, can I see a possible reduction
in agnosticism quotient.
(I am
pursuing this subject in a few posts in the days ahead)
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