Long Blog--in response to Chrissy

It's interesting topic that you have brought up here Chrissy. (Link to She's a Mess here). I think you should have said something at small group because i think most of them would have agreed with much of what you say, and had some interesting ideas on how to reconcile those two understandings...i.e. the childlike faith vs. the thinker who doubts and is allowed to doubt. It would have made the conversation more interesting too....make the conversation a little deeper. Nothing is too much fun, or provoking when everybody just agrees with EVERYTHING with each other. Anyway, here are some of my thoughts.
Matthew 18: 3 says "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." I don't think God was referring to the childness (selfish behavior) of children here (my Bible tells me so in the notes.:))...but rather their trust. You alluded to both of these things, but I think they need to be seperated out. The passages where this appears (and it appears in Luke, Mark and Matthew) always refer to the trust of a child...the relationship of a child to his father.
We also have examples thoughout the Bible of people who doubt. Who question God. Who think things out. Jacob wrestles with the angel. Thomas, the disciple, asks to see the wounds of Christ. many look at this last example as Thomas being a bad guy for not believing right away...however, he was neccessary in the story of Christ....Jesus says afterwards, Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe"..I don't think this is a condemnation fo Thomas as much as a blessing to us....we have to believe based on Thomas, and the apostles testimony..we didn't see Jesus in the flesh. Believe it is true and accurate, and that the story happened as it was stated. Does that mean we don't check to see if the Bible has been corrupted in any way? Or that the story can be verified in the ways that we can? I think God intends for us to be wiley as serpents, and gentle as doves....
the two men on the road who meet Jesus and don't realize who he is until Jesus reveals himself....Jesus says, "Why are you troubled and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." (Luke 24:39) He commands them to handle him and see. Test him.
God wants us to question, but within our questioning there is trust. At some point we have experienced God. We know that he is real. We say God, I trust you. I have put my trust in you....but hey....tell me how this works...i totally don't understand it. I know you have it worked out....because you are who you say you are, but i really don't get it. You say, God I KNOW you are good, but explain it to me....how does a good God let those bad things happen. It's the way a father/child relationship is supposed to work...although often doesn't happen in our world. And it is good to know that no matter how often we have questioned, or doubted we can still jump into his arms like a child and be protected. Like that Dennis Jernnigan song....(i know....start screaming about my cheesy worship reference)...

When I cannot feel,
When my wounds don't heal
Lord I humbly kneel,
Hidden in You
Lord You are my life,
So I don't mind to die
Just as long as I am hidden in You

If I could just sit with You awhile
If You could just hold me
Nothing can touch me though I'm wounded though I die
If I could just sit with You awhile
I need You to hold me
Moment by moment till forever passes by


How can we believe that Christ was raised from the dead? Is there proof? (Steve and I were talking about this some this weekend). There is some evidence...but doesn't this go against EVERYTHING that is natural? Everything that works according to science? And yet isn't this the basis for our faith? In graduate school I read Hume's Essay on Miracles and found it fascinating because it is exactly about this....how can you believe in something that works contrary to nature.
Hume says,
A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined. Why is it more than probable, that all men must die; that lead cannot, of itself, remain suspended in the air; that fire consumes wood, and is extinguished by water; unless it be, that these events are found agreeable to the laws of nature, and there is required a violation of these laws, or in other words, a miracle to prevent them? Nothing is esteemed a miracle, if it ever happen in the common course of nature. It is no miracle that a man, seemingly in good health, should die on a sudden: because such a kind of death, though more unusual than any other, has yet been frequently observed to happen. But it is a miracle, that a dead man should come to life; because that has never been observed in any age or country. There must, therefore, be a uniform experience against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would not merit that appellation. And as a uniform experience amounts to a proof, there is here a direct and full proof, from the nature of the fact, against the existence of any miracle; nor can such a proof be destroyed, or the miracle rendered credible, but by an opposite proof, which is superior.

The plain consequence is (and it is a general maxim worthy of our attention), `That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish; and even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force, which remains, after deducting the inferior.' When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle. If the falsehood of his testimony would be more miraculous, than the event which he relates; then, and not till then, can he pretend to command my belief or opinion. (end of quote)

Of course, Hume is an atheist. But he makes sense. Miracles, are miracles because our natural laws, experience or science has told us that these things can't happen this way. It is contrary to what we expect.
So how can someone who has studied still believe? We believe and trust all the time in things which we have learned through our experiences to trust in. We trust when we sit down on a chair that it will support our weight. Rarely do we check to see if the chair is really stable. We trust stairs. We trust the world to work as we have grown to expect it to work.
We even trust (or not trust) in our parents because of the way they have treated us, our experiences with them. They have fed us, and clothed us, and tried to protect us from harm. A child is scared of that which he does not know. A baby often cries when he is left in a nursery without his mother or father until he learns that mom or dad will come back.
I think it is not so much that God call us to not doubt, but rather that we rip away all of those pretenses that we have as adults which keep us from experiencing real relationships, and real truth. Boys, by the time they are adults can no longer cry. As men they have to re-learn that it is okay to cry...okay to be real. okay to be vunerable. It is okay to reach out and risk something....In relationships you sometimes have to trust....you have to reach out and say...okay...i might get hurt here...and if I reach out and trust them I might get burned....BUT if they are really who they say they are, and I am really willing to give myself to them.... I am willing to stake my whole life on the possiblity of believing that...and trusting that, then my whole life will never be the same. I will finally experience abundant life, and freedom. Like a child who says bluntly that somebody is fat, or looks like a witch...they don't have those filters....they are just real. They believe that dad probably knows more than they do, and so it is okay.

God calls us to both....he calls us to test him...to struggle with him....to try him, and know that he is true. This is where we learn about him, and find him. But he also places a value on children....the "real" ness of children....just as he says blessed are the poor...just as he gives respect and value to women...he does the same for children. Those groups which were looked upon with little respect....he turns everything on its head, and says look at these. These groups are precious to me. BE like these children....whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.