Thank you for reading Saving Faith! It’s pretty amazing that you choose to give my writing a few minutes of your time each week.
Here is a raw, personal reflection. I haven’t “sat on” this writing, revised it, or even thought much aout it beyond writing the first draft you’re reading here.
I’ve been having a rough time. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ve been wondering in the past few days, “What is the point of God?” Some important things in my life sort of suck, and it’s hard to see how they’ll get better. It’s also hard to tell whether my faith makes any positive difference in how I handle the sucking.
I certainly don’t feel close to God these days. I don’t see the “fruit of the spirit” in my responses to the day-to-day stresses, frustrations, and challenges of the past few months, and I can’t foresee much improvement in my responses without massive personal effort and growth that, honestly, reflects a finite human’s struggling rather than an infinite God’s spiritual transformation of that human.
So, what is the point of God? What is the point of God if the same stresses of daily life persist forever, as they seem poised to do? What is the point of God if a supposedly spiritually transformed person (me) can’t handle the stresses and frustrations and challenges far better than he does?
I guess my best answer at this moment is … God is an anchor. God is the reference-point by which I determine whether to persevere in my circumstances and, more importantly, how I will do so. If I have committed my life to following God, then I have committed myself to a set of values and principles that demand 1) perseverance in the situation in which I find myself and 2) striving toward a more graceful form of that perseverance.
Christians don’t get to give up.
Eric, I know you answered your own question. I have been there too. As a Christian we believe in the triune God, Son and Spirit. When troubles and struggles come we DO have a person to turn to, Jesus. If you feel your troubles are too hard to bear then give them to Him. He will replace them with His burden which is LIGHT.
Also when we get to the point of “I can’t take it anymore,” we need to remind ourselves of Job and his troubles. No mater what the devil did to Job he never lost his Faith and Trust in God. When Jobs trials ended God rewarded him for his faithfulness.
Today we may not see the end of our trials, but we know what reward is waiting for us and who the victor is in the end - Praise the Lord.
Many thoughts go through my mind reading this. My parents always stressed, as Evangelicals, eternal life as The Prize. But even as a young teen--maybe because I was a young teen!-- it seemed to me it should be about more (!) than that... I wanted it to be about the small, everyday stuff. I wanted a difference in that mire. And I think that's it. But it's taken decades to get there.
And for me, the path there is Psalm 46:10. Maybe these days/times, though, it should be read as "GET still..." :) Let the other stuff fall away, so you can feel God surrounding you. Humbly offered though... seriously. It's challenging to know how to share such thoughts!