Pilgrim Soldier

The longer I’m walking this path of discipleship the more convinced I am becoming that one of the biggest reasons that more and more people are disillusioned by the Church (and also why less and less people see the Christian ‘religion’ as a viable option in their lives) is because of the sheer lack of love shown between Christians. This is coupled to the language of hate that seems to be to stock language of many Christians towards those who they deem to be the worst ’sinners’.

Strangely as I read the New Testament the message that comes across time and time and time again is the message of ‘Love’! God’s love towards sinful humanity and sinful humanity’s flawed attempt to love him back. What I don’t understand is where nastiness and hatred fit into the picture!

What causes this question today? Well as one friend lies in hospital seriously ill, someone who I have never ever seen show anything but love towards God and her fellow humanity, I’ve seen others, on the very public forum of Facebook, who find it humorous to make nasty jokes or downright nasty (dare I say evil?) comments about someone they’ve never met and who is unable to defend himself due to his untimely death and at the same time proclaim their love for God. I seem to recall the Bible talks about that somewhere!

So where is the love in our walk? I’m not always good at it, but dear Lord help me get better!

We hold on to what is comfortable and familiar to us.

This was a comment that I read recently elsewhere and it suggested that this should be seen as a positive thing so that we would be unique whilst other denominations/congregations kept copying each other, with little success. I also heard something similar today!

Now I know that change is uncomfortable and that many people might actually like the idea, but I couldn’t help thinking about it in the context of Jesus’ disciples! What would have happened in the early church had held onto ‘what is comfortable and familiar’ to them?

If nothing new is ever considered, if nothing ever changes, then where will we be in 20, 30, 50 years time? If everything must stay the same then how are we ever going to reach out to a rapidly changing world?

Now I’m not naive enough to expect everything to change, but what is sacrosanct and what is up for grabs? I’m coming to the conclusion that very little of what we actually get upset about when things change is what really matters, because in fact a lot of that is cultural. It is though a way of protecting ourselves from change in other areas. But then what does that say about our reliance on God? Surely it is the never-changing God who really protects us, not the never-changing ‘Army’!

So what am I holding onto that needs to change? Probably more than I’d like to admit, but please Lord don’t let me hold onto it just because it offers me comfort. Instead I want to throw off everything that hinders for the sake of God’s Kingdom!

At the recommendation of Gordon Cotterill I’ve been reading Alan Jamieson’s Chrysalis, which is about those times in our Christian walk that St John of the Cross called the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. It’s an excellent little book, only 112 pages long, which gives some valuable insight what can be a very difficult period in a person’s faith journey.

One of the things that jumped up of the page at me was a definition of what faith is. Jamieson writes:

…faith is far more than a set of beliefs, a creed or a set of doctrines. The faith that Jesus modelled involves our whole intellect, our passions, our convictions and our willpower. It is an intrinsically relational endeavour. It is not something we could ever do, or could ever sustain, alone.

…Christian faith is also far more than just making meaning; it is living fully within the meaning we make.”

I think this is one of the things that I have been challenged most about during my time at the college. If my faith was simply a set of beliefs then quite simply my time here would have torn it apart because my ‘belief system’ has been challenged. However, the reality is that my faith is not only a set of creeds and doctrines, instead it is a living reality that makes an ever increasing difference to the way I live my life.