I have been challenged lately. I've been thinking about people I know who don't follow this "God/Jesus path" in life and weighing why they just don't try it.
I've lived long enough to know that people develop a general philosophy about life, based upon their experiences and education. Once they get to be "seasoned" in life they get used to their own way of dealing with life and the world. Does it matter whether we are right or wrong? How does whatever "truth" is affect us? If you know how to get along with other people and generally do a lot of good for others should that not suffice? In our every day relationships those things sure don't hurt. But deep inside, beyond the philosophical talk, is there a place that longs to really know why you are here?
When I was younger I used to actually marvel at being inside my body, why my hands moved when I willed them to. Why was I ME and not my friend. What separated us and why do we exist at all? Can you remember a time you thought that way? Life is amazing. No scientific theory of random occurrences has yet explained how it could be that life as complex as ours (or any life for that matter) could form. In fact, take a caterpillar for example. Why doesn't it just stay a caterpillar? Why does it become a butterfly and why would it NEED to do that if it was just adapting. Why would the change be necessary and what would prompt it?
So as people, we don't change form like the butterfly, but we definitely become something we were not before and are not yet. Why? Why do we live so long, but not as long as Methuselah. Why did HE live so long? Is it biological change in DNA or the earth's atmosphere that allowed the lengthy life span? Or did a powerful being will it that way so he could testify to the creation of Man (he was alive when Adam was) and the construction of the ark of Noah. Genesis says he died in the year of the flood. That ark wasn't built in a day, so he could have known Noah and seen the ark.
If you have an opinion that frees you from knowing God is there anything within you that just isn't sure?
This week I've been reading about St. Augustine. He was born to a Christian mother and a non-Christian father. He sought wisdom and was a brilliant teacher of rhetoric in Milan. He lived to please himself yet had probing questions that his studies of other philosophies could not answer. He came to know a man named Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan. Ambrose was another brilliant and highly respected man. What he said seemed to bring a new way of thinking to Augustine.
Later, in 386 A.D. while in a small villiage outside Milan, he heard a child singing "pick it up, pick it up and read it." So, he picked up the Bible and did that. Now, Augustine was living to please himself. He had no "holiness" to achieve because he had no beliefs that necessitated it. I say this because, unless he was bothered by this, the verse he says led him to see the light wouldn't be as significant. It was Romans 13:13-14 which says
"Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness,
not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify
the desires of the sinful nature."
So the great thinker kept thinking. He was frustrated that the many philosophies he'd studied did not answer his deeper, probing questions. He seemed to be honest about that. Are you honest about that? The Bible has a lot of answers but still leaves room for our limited understanding to become confused. Unlike other philosophies, Jehovah/God gives us redemption, brings us back into a relationship with Him. Can you imagine having a "relationship" with the Creator of the Universe? It's beyond description, but part of daily life if you accept Jesus. He rose and sent the counselor at what was called the Feast of Pentecost. Thousands of people witnessed it that day as they spoke and heard languages they didn't know. He called this the Holy Spirit.
No other philosophy can explain it but this Spirit is God's internal guidance system for wisdom and understanding. The missing pieces of life fall together over time with the help of the "Counselor" - another name for the Holy Spirit. This does not make people instantly wise, but it allows a deeper connection in relationship with God and the ability to remove the "veil" between God and us. WE now can reflect God's glory instead of following it in the desert in a cloud as the Israelites did. All this is infinitely confusing to our simple minds and even to those who are philosophical by nature. So what can I become if I have an intimate relationship with God? It depends on whether I let myself be available to Him. If God is in charge of my life, that means I don't have all the answers. I am dependent on Him but have so much more potential to impact the world!
The brilliant mind, Augustine wrote this famous prayer:
You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
We can seek truth indefinitely, but true joy, peace and hope comes from finding it.
Read more about Augustine:
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