PERCEIVING GOD

Perceiving God

I see a young man standing in the sun at a bus stop. He stands with a backpack slung over one shoulder. He has a pleasant face and he looks purposeful. He is of university age. He is travelling locally so he may attend a technical college. He is living in the moment. His mind may be on what lies ahead in his day, an assignment, a project, a person with whom he will spend some time. I surmise that he is not thinking, "How did I get into this world?" "Why am I here?" Big picture thinking for this fellow as the bus moves toward him, is probably concerned with nothing more extensive than what he will do after graduation? 

Yet, seated in my car, I pass him and my eyes are multi-tasking, observing the road ahead, vehicles attempting to merge, the speed I am travelling, the time on my car clock, and the blue sky that expands forever. I am projecting my thoughts into the frontiers of space and to the metaphysical reaches of origins. I am a man with a faith but fleetingly I seek to consider how a person without faith can imagine the genesis of all things.

I think of the other 7.125 billion humans on this planet, 2.1 billion of whom are overweight like me. Still we expect to live 70 years on average, and that's that. We will be gone. Others will take our place just as they presently are doing at a rate of 1.2% annually, which is why only twenty years ago we were 6.5 billion people. Forty years ago there were only 3.999 billion people on earth, and while we have almost doubled the world population, we still depend completely and solely upon this biosphere and minerals of this sphere. I marvel at my earth home being one of the four terrestrial planets in our Solar System, yet it is the densest planet and the third from the Sun, and earth is the only planet that is known to accommodate life. Mercury, Venus and Mars have not supported life. But why here on this earth and since when were we here, and who or what started this?

This is what my mind is doing as I drive to my gym to keep this body healthy for a few more years.

GENUINELY CHRISTIAN YET PRACTICALLY AGNOSTIC (3)

'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)

GENUINELY CHRISTIAN YET PRACTICALLY AGNOSTIC (2)

I perceive there will be superior value to the topic if I personalize it. So, I am writing to Christians today. This is a cue, an incentive to a segment of the Christian community.  In the earlier critique I expressed an opinion that we may be living like practical agnostics. It's possible. We are not 'practical' agnostics in the sense of being 'almost' agnostic or virtually agnostic. Of course not, because we do genuinely believe in the large constructs of Christian truth. Rather, during the weekdays, we have minimal explicit contact with God. While the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are factual within our theological framework, we are out of touch. We know that prayer is the network that links us with the divine, but prayer takes time and discipline. We know when we are honest with ourselves that we apply both time and discipline to online social networking, to watching our favourite TV shows, and to daily exercise.  So, we must admit we are slackers. We have not prioritized prayer.

An agnostic is characterized by uncertainty. While we believe in the merit of prayer, we may be uncertain about the effectiveness of prayer.  Possibly, our journals contain slim accounts of answers to specific prayers. We do not doubt God's ability to hear prayer, or to respond to great challenges. We are uncertain that God will answer our request. Our asks have been made before without a response. We don't want to be disappointed any further. Our request seems so trite and selfish so we hesitate. Strangely we are not open and transparent before God who is all knowing.  We worry about a job, about money, about our children. We struggle with our sexuality, with addictions, with attitudes and moods, but we refer none of these to God because we have not successfully integrated our theology with our lives on planet earth. The incarnate Jesus spoke to his Father, and advised us to call God Father. Father loved us (humanity) so much he gave us Jesus.  Jesus came here to do what he needed to do to provide a relationship for us with himself and the Father.  Jesus assured us that in his physical absence he would not leave us comfortless, but rather he promised to give us another comforter, divine like himself, namely, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not only with us but inside us, where character and spirituality are developed so that we can reflect the image of God, that is, be Christlike.      

(I will pursue this subject for in a few posts in the days ahead)

GENUINELY CHRISTIAN YET PRACTICALLY AGNOSTIC

GENUINELY CHRISTIAN YET PRACTICALLY AGNOSTIC (1)

Within the context of Christian faith in an omni-everything God, one should assume that the two terms 'christian' and 'agnostic' cannot describe the same person. Yet here I am advancing the opinion that some people of faith are practicing Christians yet practical agnostics. In daily life they are not acting in faith. My own guestimate is that this is true of a large percentage of authentic Christians.    

I am not suggesting that a person can be both Christian and agnostic. I am saying that a Christian who believes in the person of God and the deity of Christ and the redemption available through trust in the substitutionary death of Christ for sinners, may be living each day without meaningful contact with God, communication with God, or reliance upon God. This person sincerely believes what the Bible teaches, accepts mainstream theological tenets, yet when real life could benefit from the intervention of God, this person's faith does not translate into dependence upon God.

 This person may pray in public with other believers; may be sincere as the words are expressed. I am speaking about personal life, private practice, where the evidence of dependent faith or lack of it is on display to the God in whom the Christian professes faith. This person may teach scripture to others and earnestly intend each truth. At home the only prayer that is uttered is the grace before a meal. An inertia takes over when it comes to intercession for oneself, for spouse, or children, or grandchildren or neighbours. This is an agnostic uncertainty not in God himself but rather that God will act. It's practical agnosticism.

(I will pursue this subject in a few posts in the days ahead)

DUBIOUS ABOUT MIRACLES

We are so comfortable with the mundane, that we do not anticipate anything supernatural. We are theoreticians, academics. We state a belief in the phenomenal God for whom nothing is impossible, but we expect nothing beyond the routine as the consequence of our prayers. We believe He can, but we don't believe he will. Ours is a virtual reality. It's a pretense to trust. We ask for so little. We petition using banalities, truisms and clichés because we lack confidence in God, to ask boldly. "We" means all whose faith identity is Christian, Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox branches, whether denominational, undenominational, non denominational. We are a jaded bunch of professors, who make excuses for God. We are doctrinally dogmatic and practically agnostic.

Admittedly, I am overstating my case, painting this portrait with a broad brush. The subject is a Bride, whom I could paint precisely like DaVinci painted Mona Lisa, but my work here looks like an abnormally featured Picasso. We determine not to be identified with wing-nuts who charm snakes, and fake healings so we treat the miraculous as unscientific and irrational. Trying to insure that we are perceived as sane, we have placed ourselves in straight-jackets. Of course we should acknowledge our doubts or inability to understand everything about God, but surely we do not have to be cynical, contemptuous, disparaging, and suspicious of a God who can do very much more than all that we ask or even imagine.

QUIT ARGUING & START LIVING

Although I have written the past few posts with a view to distinguishing the plausibility of faith and the implausibility of atheism, I have another thought today.

I think that Christians in North America assume that all non-believers are convinced atheists or at least agnostics, so the assumed approach to them is refutation and defense and argumentation. In fact, we live in such an irreligious time that the majority of people of no faith, have simply never considered faith claims. They have little or no experience with the Bible, with Christians, or with church. They pay no attention to these. They simply live life. They may not require arguments to belief but rather winsome examples of life being lived by people who are thriving as they make sense of life by trusting God and finding his involvement at so many levels.