What has happened to people?
The waiting area is all but empty. A mother (middle-aged) and her skinny teenage son (with appropriately baggy clothes) sit near the desk. A grubby-looking college student occupies a corner, laptop open. Late-twenties red-head (business woman?) on far side. I come, do the calculations, and sit far enough away from everyone to eliminate all potential for conversation, even in the case of accidental eye-contact. The next six people do the same. Nearly everyone on a cell phone, or eating, or texting.
Real people are scary inconveniences . . . we already know too many.
"I don't have time or energy for you, unless you can prove you have something to offer.
Are you funny? Sexy? Friendly? Impressive? Will you make a good story?"
Has it always been this way? 'Cause I imagine the old days, a station wagon waiting platform-place, gap-toothed, plaid, bearded men exchanging hardy handshakes and "nice-to-meet-yous".
Am I too cool to be excited to meet you, stranger? What can you do to harm me? Any injury to my pride would be a help.
Do any of you think of me? What half-formed ideas about the somber kid with his legs crossed, writing, momentarily distract your brain from its dominant preoccupation?
What are your stories? I'd love to care about you...know that I'm trying--and if that counts for anything, I do care in that small way.
As a child of God, I ought to bring joy to this place. Forgive me stranger--I'm not yet what I should be. I have no real cause to be uneasy, in the grand scheme of things...and certainly I'm of no account, so I don't know why I'm so prone to self-induced social paralysis.
But in another way, there is legitimate cause--the air is thick with fear and sin, the wrecks of mediocrity or malice...hatred sits there, to my left deception. Across against the wall is laziness. But are they happy--generally--or sad?
Are you empty? Or is your void filled with bubbles that make your walls feel like its full?
I do know the Truth. Will you listen if I tell you?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I will listen. I have never been so ready to listen in all my short lived life. I want to know what the truth is. I want to know how I can regain my childhood faith. The faith that I left behind to try a different path. I spent the better half of three years filling that void that is present in every human heart with heartless emotions. I was happy, I was loved, I was intoxicated and in the end I was alone. I am filled with bubbles of self-indulgence and depression that has only led to emptiness. I am not full, I am not empty, I just am.
Why, why did such a perfect God allow such sin, why do we have to suffer through this life just to reach glory? Why can’t we go to heaven now if we truly are children of God and our Savior really wants to save us? Christianity leaves many gaps, leaves much to be determined by a mere man’s mind. The Bible, although written by God-inspired authors, lacks a sense of depth, of meaning. And the cry rings forth to just accept, to just believe, to let go of the evident holes in the Christian faith. Is it truly all about faith and trust and hope? To say that Christianity has no absolutes, no concrete evidence to its reality, is to state that this world is in complete disarray.
Flags of surrender are constantly shown. Alcohol, sex, drugs and money are all vices to quiet the impeding heart that is screaming for relief. Young people die trying to pump their veins with purpose. Teenagers kiss their lives goodbye as they purposely lay down their own lives. Parents place their children in every activity possible, desiring the best schools, the best gifts, the best achievement, the best sports, the best spouse and yet one day none of that will matter. It will fade away like the seasons, a burial will be conducted and another life will be snuffed out. I have seen death and I have seen life and both are hopeless.
If Christ is real, if faith is tangible, if grace is sufficient, why do Christians act the way they do? You may announce that they too are still sinners. And rightfully so, as they plead their gospel on the foundation of sin and a need for a Savior. But they have to be different. They must be more concerned with the way their money is spent. The time they use must be to continually serve Christ. Why, why are Christians so blind if they truly are holding the truth? Are they ill-informed?
“Forgive me stranger-I’m not yet what I should be.” I suppose no one is who they were truly fashioned to be. You are right, it is called sin and if you never write anything back, I will be forever grateful for all the posts you and your friends have already written and your sincere honesty. You are not afraid to speak of your failings and you understand them, perhaps that is the first step to overcoming them.
If it is any consolation, I care about you somber kid and even though I have no idea where I am going or what I believe, I will pray for you.
It is like a gas chamber filling with toxins. I am drowning in my own doubt.
If you hold the Truth, I will listen.
I can’t convince you to believe. I wish I could I really wish I could make this make sense.
I can only speak the truth and pray that God opens your eyes to what you are having a hard time seeing.
Many people have written much more convincingly on behalf of the gospel. I urge you to read C.S. Lewis’s “The Problem of Pain” and “Mere Christianity” or Lee Strobel’s “The Case for Christ.”
But I know that you will still have questions, I know that the problems in your life and in mine, and in the world around us, distract you from the possibility that this gospel is true.
I have a lot to say—I will say this for now: this gospel that so many reject on the basis of evil in the world and the inconsistency of Christians, is gospel—good news—precisely because there is evil in the world and in people, even Christians. To deem it inconsistent because it fails to fulfill criteria it never claims to fulfill is self-deceiving.
The bible claims to be God’s self-revelation. It demands to be viewed as the only lens for viewing the world that accurately brings into focus man and man’s relationship to God (Deut 8:3, Ps. 119:30, Prov. 30:5). This demand can be obeyed or disobeyed, but it must not be ignored. When you are given a pair of glasses, if you never put them on you can never be sure whether or not they are good glasses. You can lay them on the table and walk away, or even stay awhile and look at them. But—especially if your eyes are as bad as most—you won’t be able to tell that these glasses make sense out of what you feel with your other senses. You feel pain? Look and see that God does not explain it away…he acknowledges the reality of suffering that breaks his heart…yet in his wisdom, which is higher than ours, he allows it to continue. You smell the smoke of raging wickedness and rebellion? Look and see its source: hatred towards a good God. You feel your inadequacy? Look and see—there is a problem deeper and darker than you knew. You long for fulfillment and deliverance from doubt and guilt? Look and see, a man—a real man who walked on real ground in a real time in real space—has died, and his death has brought life to billions of people over hundreds of years in all kinds of circumstances and walks of life.
If, in order to believe in a God who says his ways are higher than our ways we require that his ways be understandable, we will be deterred before we begin. The alternative is not blind faith. It is trust in a God who describes accurately and adequately the problem of evil, and provides a way of escape. Scripture presents God as a God who is all-powerful, all-wise, and perfectly righteous. He is also bent on bringing himself glory—and it is perfectly righteous that he do so.
Objecting on the basis of evil is to establish our evaluation of what brings God glory as the definitive word. Then we will never be able to believe this God, because we’ve reduced him to an inconsistency that does not exist on the basis of His self-description.
There is obviously much more to say. Don’t stop asking questions! Look to Christ and to His word. This is the only message that will ever bring true resolution and restoration.
p.s. I got the glasses analogy from Cornelius Van Til’s “Why I am a Christian” (http://www.reformed.org/apologetics/index.html?mainframe=/apologetics/why_I_believe_cvt.html)
Post a Comment