Previously—Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Perhaps I should just call this part “Work still in progress.”
I don’t have answers to every question. I am still working on letting God build my life into the image that He wants. I still make mistakes and sin, act in ways that harm others or show my petty, childish side. I struggle in finding contentment.
Yet, I am still a Christian. The decision that came during that summer and subsequent months began a lifetime pursuit of truth relative to my questions about faith. If there’s a God, then why the pain of life? Is the Bible even remotely true? What proof, if any, exists beyond the Bible, especially proof from history itself? Why was the church so messed up?
These and other questions became my battleground. Lewis, McDowell, and later Dietrich Bonhoeffer became my mentors as I worked to determine the truth of the matter. This was not a “the Bible says it so that settles it” type of moment. And, I would take the next years to really attempt to gain a deeper insight into these and other questions.
Yet, as I returned to my fall quarter at Auburn as a Junior, I felt somehow different. I couldn’t really put my finger on it, but I was getting closer. Learning about the faith was becoming a passion. This was predicated on a pretty simple viewpoint—if I was really a Christian, then I should know at a deeper level what Jesus had actually taught. And, if he taught it, then I really needed to actually do it.
The most obvious verse that was becoming dominant in my life was the passage in Luke where Jesus explains what it means to follow him. He said, “if any person com e after me, they must take up their own cross, deny themselves and follow.” (Luke 9:23) As Spring break was coming, that verse was truly becoming a guiding principle. Simple, direct, clear—if I had really seen God in the summer of 1984 and determined to really be one of His people, then this was the way.
I’ve lived by that simple concept ever since. Not my will, but His. So, when you read my opening paragraph introduction on this site, I write that the site is home to my “lifelong discussion about matters of values, success, and life lived well, both for yourself and for society at large. If you are someone who wants to know what it really means to Live Well, if you want to really find Success for Life, then come on in.”
The core of my ideas comes then from this faith journey. I didn’t just grow up a Christian, nor blindly just fall into this. I put the faith through a rigorous investigation. I found the intellectual reasoning of Lewis and the historical investigation of McDowell stunning, fresh, invigorating. I had long thought of myself of being “smart” so the writing of both men was compelling (and humbling as I realized just how limited my own knowledge truly was). But the defense of God presented by these writers was not the namby-pamby, Sunday school easy version of “believe because it’s the right thing to do.” No, here I found real men with considerable intellect grappling with the same questions as I.
I still feel confident today, some 25 years later, that this faith is the true journey of life. I hope that by sharing a bit, you realize that we can talk about this intelligently. And, if you have questions about the Christian faith, or any religious tradition for that matter, you can ask me. I bet that most of your questions are ones that I have dealt with. Some may still be issues of debate in my own mind. Regardless, we can talk about it.
Give me a chance. It could change your life in radical and amazing ways.