This Little Light of Mine

This Little Light of Mine

Perhaps since the fall of man, we've struggled to prove God's existence. By extraordinary design, however, the existence of God cannot be proven.  I believe God designed it that way so that we must make a very real and high-stakes choice.  If God's existence was a matter of scientifically verifiable fact, we really wouldn't have much of a choice to make about him. So to believe in God requires faith and that is how God designed this love relationship to work. After all, it wouldn't require much love to acknowledge and believe in a simple, verifiable fact.

What is faith?  Heb 11:1 defines it as "the substance of things hoped for" and "the evidence of things not seen" (KJV).  Where is this evidence?  The daily testimony of nature cries out to not only the reality of God, but to his infinite wisdom and love.  My day last Saturday, for instance started before sunrise in the deer woods.  What a magnificent sunrise!  No one saw it from my exact perspective, so this was a gift crafted uniquely for me at that time and place. God created us in His image and we are awed by his creation.  God wired us to "hear" the testimony about himself from his inanimate creation so that we would be blessed and by seeing His evidence, our faith would be increased.  After all, who is it that doesn't appreciate a colorful sunrise or sunset?  So, the nearly universal appreciation of a sunrise or sunset provides evidence of a devine creator who created us to see Him in his created world. Had we simply evolved, who would appreciate the beauty of creation?  We simply wouldn't care.  God wired us to see Him, appreciate Him, and know Him, and to love Him in His created order. 

The tragedy herein is that when I ask Christian adults and youth alike where they have seen God lately, I almost always get a nature story if I get an answer at all.  What's so tragic about a nature story? Nothing if there are other stories to go with it.  Jesus said that if his disciples were to remain silent, the very rocks would cry out in testimony to God (Luke 19:40).  The tragedy is that we can't supply any evidence of God at work in our lives. By analogy if there is no testimony, there is no faith!

I'll be the first to tell you that in the excess of America, I really don't need much faith to get through a day.  I get up, go to work, apply myself, come home and do the same, and go to bed.  What did I depend on God to do today?  I have food, I have a steady paying job, I don't really have any real need of God to meet my needs and so very many of my wants.  Listen to the prayer requests at church - they only really involve the things we can't control ourselves: health and death.  I'll just come out and say it right here.  The problem with the church in America including FUMC in FWB is lack of powerful evidence of God!  We have no faith!  (Bring on the comments - show me where I'm wrong and I'll publicly repent!). We don't set faith based budgets or programs. We use logic and data to figure out what we can do for God.  Here's a clue: the creator of the universe doesn't need you to do anything, but love and obey Him! 

So the answer is to be a bold witness for Christ and tell everyone we know about Him, right?  Why would you expect the world to believe words if there is no evidence to support the foundation - evidence of God?  If we can't provide a sound answer to the question of exactly what difference God has made in our lives and why anyone who is not in relationship with Him should be, are our words persuasive?  I suggest not.  So what then?  St. Francis of Assisi said it so well: "Preach the Gospel always.  If necessary, use words." 

Our actions, then should be a beacon of light for Christ. The only thing that is keeping me from being more concrete evidence of God than that spectacular sunrise last Saturday is a lack of faith.  I simply don't believe that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do.  Otherwise I would exude the gifts of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) in everything I do and others would immediately recognize it.  I would also immediately recognize and give thanks for the constant work of God all around me.  I would be able to bear witness to His work and have a constant testimony of His work in me and in the lives around me. 

In fairness, there are many things we can never know.  Did God miraculously prevent a lethal wreck on my way home yesterday?  I may never know if so.  I should, however, be able to clearly recognize those things he does do.  There are some things to celebrate.  Our church, for instance, is launching a community breakfast out of deep desire by many to bear witness "under the shadow of our steeple" without clear knowledge of just how we will man or fund such an initiative.  Clearly we're boldly stepping out in faith and I applaud that initiative.  It is anecdotal, however, and not a way of life for every program and initiative of our church.  We pray quickly that God will guide us and bless our efforts, then spend hours and sometimes days and weeks talking, gathering and analyzing data, pouring over results by others, and then move cautiously in some small direction based on our best and most logical deductuion from all we learned.  What if we've got it backwards?  What if we spent a few quick minutes analyzing data and hours in prayer?  What would data analysis and logic have revealed to Daniel about being thrown into a den of lions?  Or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednogo about being thrown into fire?  Wouldn't the analysis show certain death?  Reliance on human experience misses the most important point: only God know the future.  I'm sure that all four didn't need extensive analysis and multiple brainstorming sessions to deduce almost certain death, so they opted to make a stand on principle - one that was supported by unwavering faith that regardless of the outcome, they could trust and rely on God. 

Another reason that we don't see God at work besides not expecting to, is our own self centeredness.  My observation is that many Christians are so simply for what's in it for them. It's a me-focused faith.  We hear that message and build mega-churches around it all the time with messages about God saving us, prospering us, comforting us, forgiving us, and so on.  All true, but the focus is on what's in it for me.  I believe this kind of faith is what Paul was talking about when we referred to thinking and acting like a child (1 Cor 13:11)).  Faith that is focused on me is minimal if not outright idolatry.  It is this childlike faith that leads otherwise apparently mature Christians to behave like a two year old throwing a nonsensical self-centered tantrum and simply decide they don't have to accept the totality of scripture because God wants them to do whatever makes them happy.  So we see apparently mature Christian men abandon their commitments to their wives and children and pursue sexual satisfaction elsewhere.  Christians are divorcing at record rates, going into unprecedented debt, buying into all sorts of lies by satan, and absolutely refusing to accept or even believe they need any kind of accountability because of a lack of faith.  It's a self-centered attitude that says "God is just that savior who will take care of me when I'm really sick and after I'm dead."  So we add Him to our long list of priorities, take him out of the box once a week or less, give Him an hour or so of divided attention and once in a while when there's nothing more important to do we volunteer for some minimally impactful project just so we feel better about ourselves. Evidence of an unseen God?  I don't think so.  The evidence is plain.  We have made ourselves into gods and we're reaping our reward!  Our churches are shrinking, our families are splitting, and our morals are decaying, in the meantime, the rocks are crying out.

So does First Church need to build a hot fire and throw me in?  Perhaps so, especially after this rant. However, if we desire to provide evidence of God that demands a verdict from those around us in our community, we need to have a more meaningful testimony than nature.  We need to be able to cry out ourselves and we need a forum to do so!  We need to learn how to more readily recognize God at work, more clearly hear him speak and give testimony to those events and messages.  We will never see Him at work, however, if we don't expect it and don't have the skill of recognizing it as God when we see it.  How do we do so?  I think it has to start with priorities.  A life that truly places God in the first priority will truly look different.  Our choices will be guided by God and we won't move until we've clearly heard from Him.

What difference has God made in your life - ever?  Last year?  Last week? Yesterday?  Maybe we're not seeing God because we don't expect to do so.  Maybe we are like the Jews and simply don't recognize him at work all around us.  Perhaps we believe we must do for ourselves before God will assist us, so we're wrapped up in self service and simply don't want or worse don't think we need God.   So where does this leave us?  Does the pattern of my life and your life, our choices, our actions, our friends provide evidence of God or are the rocks having to carry our share of His message? We are either witnessing for or against Christ (Matt 6:24).  So what is the evidence of things not seen in your life. How has God been made real to you such that your faith has been increased?  Where should one even begin looking?

The answer is love.  1 John 4:16 states that God is Love.  1 John 3:14 states that Love is the proof of faith.  Love is action  - Agape and the subject of another rant.