being a christian

Awesome life!

/ Minimalist Christian / 2 Comments

As we age, we find that we can’t do all the things we used to.  I can’t hear as well as I could, and my eyes have reached the stage of needing vari-focal lenses. On the plus side though, we learn a lot too, and one thing we learn is that we don’t know as much as we thought we might when we were younger.  We learn to look more deeply at questions, perhaps because unlike a child who keeps asking ‘why’ we have learnt not to take answers on complete trust.

But when bits of our body stop working we begin to remember how amazing it is when they do, and to wonder if we really do understand all that’s going on in the universe.

Our bodies have incredible and almost unbelievable systems and components.  If someone were to describe how our bodies operate, I doubt that we would believe them but for the fact that we have seen them and we live in them …. and take them for granted!  There was a time when there was no life, and now there is ‘us’.  So my mind wandered:

  • Was there a time when our ancestors didn’t have all of the components and systems that we now have as humans?
  • Was there a time when they had all but one?
  • Was there a time when they had all but two?
  • Was there a time when our ancestors didn’t have blood?
  • When they didn’t have an immune system?
  • When they didn’t have nerve cells?
  • When they didn’t have joints in the skeleton?
  • When they didn’t have a heart?
  • When they didn’t have a blood clotting mechanism?
  • When they didn’t have a bone restructuring system?
  • When they didn’t have lungs?
  • When they didn’t have the little hairs in the lungs that clear out the mucus?
  • When they didn’t have mucus?

I don’t doubt that the answer is ‘yes’, but that further magnifies the amazing fact of our existence.

Not only do our present bodies have to grow in just the right sequence from the very first cell, but the process of developing to our present state must also have occurred in a sensibly ordered sequence. There would be no point in having a blood clotting mechanism without blood but an animal which has blood but no clotting mechanism would be rather fragile. Both mechanisms and components must have developed in parallel.  But the blood itself would be of little benefit without veins and arteries, and the veins and arteries would be of little benefit without the heart, and the heart would be of little benefit if it didn’t respond to the ‘operational needs’ of the body.

So we have a body that constructs itself in a way that at each stage of development it is fully operational (albeit in the controlled environment of the womb), and we have a generation to generation development process that ensures that each entity at each stage of its own development is operational in its own right.

I don’t doubt that this happens, and has happened over millennia.  I don’t have a problem with the principles that Darwin proposed.  But I do wonder if all this can happen just as a result of the properties of matter and the laws of physics.

Of course “the truth is out there” … but whether we can ever find out is another question….

If God is all powerful, why doesn’t he stop all the fighting?

/ Minimalist Christian / 2 Comments

I wrote this when my delightful daughters were much younger; I hope that if they read this now it will make them smile ……

Parents can learn a lot from their children.

My children sometimes fight.  Sometimes one or other of them may exaggerate their wounds and try to get me to arbitrate as to who was to blame.  I hate to see them fighting and so have found myself drawn into trying to resolve and judge the issue.  However, I try not to blame one or the other because I love them both and recognize that it takes two to make an argument. However, it often ends up with both of them ‘hating’ me.  If I do arbitrate then the one who ‘wins’ soon forgets, but the loser then spirals into silent or vociferous anger and feeling of being unfairly treated.  As an arbitrator I cannot win!  Even as a peacekeeper I seldom win.  It is perhaps best to leave them to have their fight, and to be there to comfort whoever needs comforting.

Since we have free will, how can God intervene when he sees us fighting and causing suffering?  We would behave in just the same way as my children.  It would not be ‘fair’ if we were judged ‘against’, and if we were judged ‘for’ then we would simply accept the decision as our right, and go about our business.  He has given us the dignity of choice, but having done that he has necessarily limited the use of his power.

He lets us choose how to resolve the fight.  Jesus told us how to resolve the fight if we are prepared to listen.  Essentially – don’t worry about winning the argument – look for the plank in your own eye – think what you could have done better – be humble – turn the other cheek.  It’s not ‘fair’, but it works!  But when we ignore his advice then he’s still there to comfort whoever needs comforting.

Is it time to stop blaming God for all the things we do wrong to each other?  Instead, shall we recognise his love for us, and listen to his advice and find the fulfilment of living our lives as he intended?

A rational look at heaven

/ Minimalist Christian / 2 Comments

A common view of heaven is that it is a reward for being good. Be good in this life and then you can go and have a ball in heaven – no longer having the restraint of having to pass the entrance exam. Indeed, some believe that when a martyr gets to heaven he is immediately met by seventy-two virgins and promised everlasting happiness.

Maybe our parents said things like ‘be nice or you won’t go to heaven’, in the same way that they might have said ‘do your homework or you won’t go to university’. Perhaps we grew up thinking that the final test will be to weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds, and if the scales tip the right way we get in.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the film ‘Meet Joe Black’. Joe is ‘Death’, come to claim a wealthy American who it seems has led a ‘good and honest life’. Joe takes a short holiday with the American before he takes him to his final destination. When it’s finally time to leave the American asks, “Do I need to worry where I’m going?” to which Joe replies, “A man like you…. No”. His reward is heaven. He got there by his own efforts and he deserved it!

Then there is Pascal’s wager. Put simply, if you believe in God and he exists then you get to heaven, if you believe and he doesn’t you simply cease to exist when you die – no negative consequences, so a safe thing to do. If you don’t believe in God and he doesn’t exist then you simply cease to exist when you die, but if you are wrong you suffer in hell – a serious negative consequence, not a safe thing to do. As I’ve written it there is the implication that if you believe in God you get to heaven, which some take as the ‘entry requirement’.

A friend likes to turn Pascal’s wager upside down and say something like, “If I don’t believe in God and find out heaven’s real then I get a double bonus as I haven’t had to do all the religious stuff and I get to heaven as well”

Then there is the ‘Christian’ view that we can all go to heaven because of Jesus dying on the cross; he has bought our entry, we don’t have to do anything.

But is heaven like any of these concepts? Let’s apply some reason to the question.

I don’t invite people to my house as a reward for them being good. I invite them because I like them.

I don’t feel I have a right to go to someone else’s house because I’ve been good. I only go if I have an invite, and because I want to get to know them better because I expect to like them.

Heaven is God’s house. Wouldn’t we expect a similar situation to apply to heaven? Isn’t it a cheek to expect to go to his house just because we’ve done good deeds? Isn’t it reasonable to only go if we want to get to meet God? Would we expect to treat God with less respect than we would treat our neighbours?

And what of this idea that once we get there we can just enjoy all the things we’ve given up to get there? Seventy-two virgins…. Yet I wonder if they would consider it heaven. And that’s really the point. Heaven is not set up for me as an individual to live in wanton pleasure to the detriment of everyone else. Heaven must be a place where everyone lives for the good of everyone else – otherwise it wouldn’t be heaven. When I helped in prison, the chaplain used to say ‘Sin can’t get into heaven’. If sin was allowed, it would be no different to here; it would not be heaven.

Therefore, if you or I want to hold on to our selfish ways, if we want to hold on to any of our ‘sin’ then we cannot be allowed to enter.

We need a transforming of our mind to be able to enjoy heaven; heaven would be ‘hell’ if we didn’t enjoy and thrive on being selfless and loving.

It’s not about ‘be good and go to heaven’. We need to be willing to undergo complete transformation of our way of thinking if we want to be fitted for heaven, we need a new ‘heart’. That’s what so much of Christ’s teaching was all about – how to be completely selfless and loving, putting others before oneself, preparing ourselves for heaven.

Feeling Gloomy? Breaking the spiral.

/ Minimalist Christian / 2 Comments

Cast your burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. (Psalm 55 v22)

It was shortly after Christmas a few years back, and I was feeling a little low.  I wrote the following:

“I remember writing before being a Christian that I didn’t feel like a sinner – but somehow now I feel more and more like one! I’m moody and irritable,  I’m gloomy, and when I’m despondent it’s hard for me to cheer up.  I selfishly want someone else to cheer me up for me – and I tend to sulk.  Then I realise this and think ‘well I’m not very nice am I!  I don’t deserve God’s love’  and then I get depressed – and I think, ‘I shouldn’t be depressed, God’s forgiven my sins’ and that makes it worse – because I haven’t!  and then I feel guilty about it – wallowing in self-pity!  Pathetic isn’t it.

And then I think, ‘this is all I  I  I  – what about other people.  Pull yourself together, and cheer yourself up’.  And then I think, ‘well isn’t this what God is meant to do?  Well my faith can’t be very good because I’m still miserable’,  and then I think ‘why do I have to keep thinking about these things – why can’t I just accept his love and let that be that.’

And how can I accept God’s love if I don’t do anything for him in return.  So I have to relearn that I don’t win God’s love through works – but through grace …..  and I’m back up a couple of paragraphs!”

I felt a bit better when my wife couldn’t stop laughing as she read this.  And then I prayed and ‘cast my burden on the Lord’.  I asked for His help.

And what happened?  Suddenly I found this conversation going on in my head – I was raising the points above, and instantly I’d get a reply! Something like

Me – “How can I accept your love?”

Reply – “Don’t be so stupid – you know I love you unconditionally”

Me – “But what do I do to deserve it?”

Reply – “Nothing – just accept it”

And so on for a little while, and then

Me – “is this me replying to myself or God talking to me”

Reply – “what do you think?”

Me – “but couldn’t I just have a little proof”

 And suddenly I felt a very brief but extremely powerful emotion – I can’t really describe it.  But suddenly I felt peaceful again.  And I know again that God’s there ready to pull me up out of the next trough.

 Thank you Lord for being so patient and so loving.