I was reading a book titled "When God doesn't make sense", it got to a chapter about Job, his seemingly unwarranted suffering, and how we hopelessly try to rationalize such things to ourselves.
That got me thinking about my friend, her way of spreading the gospel has always perplexed me.
She seeks knowledge. She struggles so much to rationalize, to find answers, to place the happenings of our faith and our God logically, and to appeal to non Christians with that logic and order ... only to be baffled with more questions in return ... and so the cycle goes on ...
Didn't God say "as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts" Isaiah 55:8-9? That's what troubles me about young Christian’s (like us) popular views that God makes sense; He doesn't. So you end up trying to explain something to yourself and your peers that was never intended to be understood by you in the first place.
The "knowledgeable" Christians way of spreading the gospel involves forming attractive and convincing arguments. Sometimes that like hammering a nail with your fist, trying to do something that for most of us simply cannot be done. Even the most acclaimed theologians can't come up with satisfying answers for everyone, never mind us. When our silly arguments don't work, we pray that God will make the other person understand what you're saying. The next time you share God with that person you proceed the same way, say the same things.
Some have moved beyond that; they ask God for a hammer. "May I have more knowledge to answer their questions ... May I have more answers for this person ... May you give me the answers to life so I can tell them ..." (that last one was sarcastic).
The loving Christian asks God for something completely different, something to change themselves rather than God. That's like asking god for a box of screws and a powered screwdriver, a totally different approach. "God, may more of my life reflect you to them, may my love overflow to them, may you show yourself to them". There is an overwhelming humility that we can’t possibly explain God fully to people or ourselves.
Are you changing what you do to be a better apostle for God, or are you asking God to change the way He works so that you don’t have change yourself? Knowledge and passion are both important, but are you more of a trivia-geek or a passionate Christian?
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