The Mystery…
One day I struggled with
the concept of a creator of existence, the concept of a god. I was at a point in my life when I realized
that there were a lot of claims about this creator and creation but I really
had no idea what was what. I simply
prayed out “God, if you exist, I really need to know what is real and I really
want to know what the truth is.” I was
raised Christian but I really did not buy it; I actually despised church and
was expecting that the “truth” lay closer to Hinduism or Buddhism.
There is a space between
the world of men and the world of God; a chasm really. This is a space where we humans understand
the world with our five literal senses.
But the world of God is different and beyond our five senses, it is strictly
spiritual. This world of God requires a
sixth-sense, which every human has, but it is only understood through faith.
The problem of faith is
that there is much to choose from: Hinduism,
Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and New Age just to name a few. Then to make things worse each religion is
broken down into fractured denominations and sects. In the early 2000’s I learned that there were
over 115 types of Baptist denominations in the Christian religion in America. And that is just the Baptists. I wonder how many more denominations there are
among the Romanists, the Orthodox, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians,
the Congregationalists, the Methodists, and the Pentecostals. It makes the head spin. I believe this pool of muddy water is the
reason that so many people have faith only in their own made up brand of
whatever makes them feel best. And really,
who can blame them?
But back to the space
between us and God: No matter what we
presently believe, what our faith is, there is still this spiritual space that
exists and it is a mystery. And somewhere
in that mystery is the truth of creation, the truth about God.
When I prayed to the
creator that day long ago I really had no faith. No idea what was what and I was ready for
some truth rather than the fictional reality that my hubris made-up and guided
me through life. All I wanted was truth,
no matter what that truth was.
Within about four weeks of
my prayer I was confronted with a bunch of claims of truth but one that stuck
in my craw was the resurrection from the dead.
The concept that the Creator of the universe became a human who died on
a Roman cross to pay some cosmic price for the sins of mankind, which included
me and my sins, and then was brought back to life after three days dead sounded
preposterous to me.
But it nagged at me.
It nagged at me that the resurrection
from the dead is a statistical impossibility.
I might as well have waited for the clothes dryer tumble drying my
laundry to accidentally fold my clothes upon completion or the cosmos to come
into existence by an atom of matter forming into existence by accident and then
doing a Big Bang. But nag at me as it
did I was aware that the Cross of Christ and his resurrection were the mystery
that no other religion proclaimed. It
felt true to me. So in a leap of faith I
asked Jesus that if it was true, if he was really alive in this mysterious spiritual
reality that I wanted him to do something to me. I would dedicate my life to Him if it really
were true.
So He did.
In the next year I changed
drastically. My interests changed, my
desires changed, my philosophies of life changed, and my actions as well as my reactions
changed. My life’s focus became less
about me and more about others. Today I
am still changing albeit more slowly. I
know I don’t know everything and yet I do know that connecting with God begins
at the Cross of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead. The resurrection is the mystery that can
only be realized by faith.
2 Devote yourselves to
prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for
our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in
chains. 4 Pray
that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make
the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:2-6)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+4%3A2-6&version=NIV
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