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)