CHRISTIANITY? REALLY?

Like never before, we live in an age where the truth of the Gospel of Christ is questioned over and over again. “What about the starving kids in Ethiopia? Where was He when the rebel soldiers turned able-bodied men and women of Sierra-Leone disabled, by cutting off their limbs? Why didn’t He do something about it? What did they do before being born, why did those kids deserve HIV even whilst in the womb? How can God just stand and stare? These are just some of the questions that get asked everyday.

I live in Britain. I have never visited a war-torn zone, neither have I had any first-hand experience of what it means to go without food indefinitely, unsure of when the next meal will come. I cannot begin to imagine the agony of what growing up as a 10 year-old with HIV must be like, knowing fully well that I have done nothing to deserve it. And therefore, to all intents and purposes, this should disqualify me from being able to give an informed opinion on anything relating to these matters. Unless, of course, I looked at it from a point of view that transcends the physical.

This point of view of mine is quite simply Christianity. It is one that is so simple, but yet so complicated; a road so narrow, that falling off it can sometimes seem like the ‘sensible’ thing to do. A very famous athlete probably thought so, when he decided to desist in his beliefs and aired comments that seemed to reflect strong doubts about whether or not God even exists[1]. A little background history may be necessary for a few of us. Jonathan Edwards is the world record holder in the Triple Jump Event. Needless, to say how committed to his sport, he was. However, so much more was he committed to his faith, that he missed an opportunity to compete at the 1991 World Championships because he would have had to jump on a Sunday – a day, for him dedicated to God. So his recent statements baffle me. I am not related to him in anyway (although I love athletics and world record holders particularly. Maybe that counts?), but his story did get me thinking a fair bit this afternoon. He is the second person that I know, who has within a space of 1 year, fallen back on their faith. People who have been pretty much close to ‘gung-ho’ about their beliefs, all of a sudden doing a U-turn on those fundamental principles that had previously guided and directed their lives. Why? How?

Looking at the situations we are confronted with in the world, it becomes so easy to discard God’s existence. I can imagine people asking, “A good God would never let that happen now, would He?” But I ask, “Who gave you that idea of good, in the first place? So are you going to try define for Him [now] what good is, like He didn’t understand its meaning before planting it in your head?” [I am not going through the whole philosophical debate of whether God exists or not here, for anyone that knows anyone interested in the theoretics, please see[2]]. This is why I believe in His divine purpose, irrespective of the situations I see around me. I trust that He has a better idea of what ‘good’ is and that in the grand scheme of things, there is only very little that I can see of the detailed picture, but I put my trust in Him regardless. This is why it is called Faith. Otherwise, what is the point in hoping for something you pretty much already have?“

Is it easier to discuss and understand the issues of faith when all is apparently well on the outside? Will a well-fed man look to the spiritual only because he is less pre-occupied with finding where his next meal or other basic necessity is going to come from? What will I do if I found myself as a 10 year-old with a broken down immune system, struggling to come to terms with having HIV?” These are just some of the questions about faith that came to me earlier on today.

Paul made it quite clear about the way that he saw himself. He would frequently speak about himself in a very transient sense. Like he was passing through Life temporarily. His goal was elsewhere. His mind-set was different, ethereal. He understood living on Earth for what it really is; dying to himself. This, I believe, is what allowed Paul to go through his constant floggings, persecutions, hunger, being on the run, beatings and imprisonments and in spite of it all, to still say “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus Our Lord.”

I, like Paul, desire to see Life in its correct perspective, just as I would wish every person in more precarious situations to be able to. I believe that it is this understanding of who we are in the long run, in the eternal sense, which will make us victorious in all our undertakings.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Edwards_(athlete)#Religious_beliefs
[2] Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis