// April 2nd, 2006 // No Comments » // life
OK, so honestly Randy Travis has absolutely nothing to do with this blog… except he had an album called “Storms of Life” many years ago. It is storming really bad here in TN, tornado warnings and all… so I have storms in my life. Literally.
I really enjoyed hearing Donald Miller speak today at The People’s Church, he’s got a great way of thinking. Here is what bothers me though… He’s 34 years old. I am 34 years old. I want to have a greater understanding of God, much like he seems to have. Here’s my problem, I have complicated it way more than it needs to be. Today I realized, it’s a relationship… ok, so I didn’t realize it today, but for some reason TODAY I wanted to understand it… and I did. I’m not saying that I figured out a secret key to Jesus or God, maybe what I mean is that I gained perspective on Him.
He spoke today of choosing Christianity as his “religion” or “the belief he subscribed too”. He was asked at a lecture why he chose Christianity when he had not done any research on other religions. Then they told him they had trouble trusting him because he hadn’t done an objective search into other religions, which obviously is a fair question. His response was interesting… he understood their question was based on their “vision” or “idea of Christianity” being a religious or philosophical system, however he didn’t see Christianity that way… he saw it as a relational faith. In which he explains he “hears” or “interprets” their question like this: “I see that you are married to this woman, and you are faithful to her… you don’t sleep around to find a better love for yourself?”. He explains that the nature of a relationship is exclusive. So if you are searching for truth or an objective truth in any religion, because our language is so subjective, that you would be on an endless search!!! You would never be able to land on the same thing and you would be forever seeking a truth!!!
If you look at Christianity as a “religion” or a “philosophical system” that is fine, but it will cause tension in your life and often times doubt because we are human and we will fail all the “requirements”, BUT if you look at it as a relationship… It’s like God saying I want to be your dad, you don’t need any other dads… you won’t submit to any other dads… no one else will love you unconditionally… no one else will help you reach maturity… no one else will pick you up and hug you when you continually fail. Is it really that easy? Well, do you know any relationship that is easy? The fact is that God loves us, and he wants to be in a relationship with us… he doesn’t ever leave us… try to divorce us… excommunicate us… he just loves us and wants to be part of us. We are the ones who have better ideas or too much to do that we slide or fade away from Him.
The cool thing is that no matter what I do, God will love me. I will make mistakes in life, I will fall… I’m human… I will fail to be the perfect example of who Jesus is, but he will still love me.
Thanks for reading… anyone else hear Don speak? Any thoughts?
