What up! ngl I didn't know what I could do my blog entry on so I'm gonna wheel up and take it back to basics; bear with. Not knowing what to write this blog on made me think about the unknown in general (there's the link) and how it's actually pretty comforting to get to grips with the unknown…
I'm usually pretty chill when it comes to not knowing stuff, ask my teachers, but the big questions around Christian faith are things I've been hung up on forever. In these scary times, people are so desperate to KNOW stuff, thinking that's where comfort will be found. Global protests and viral conspiracy theories swelling up over the past weeks have made me see things to be grateful for that I haven't been before. I'm okay with not understanding everything that's going on, or why it is, because I know the only truth I need to know. That there's a creator God who loves me unconditionally. It might sound a super naive mindset, but more and more I'm applying it to things I don't understand in my faith. We can't understand everything, and we're not meant to - that's for God. Ironically, I remember learning this as a kind of criticism of faith in GCSE RE - the 'God of the Gaps' theory - that believers fill gaps in their general understanding with God. However you view that, it can't be as easy as it's made out to be there. It takes courage to have faith where you defer your human need for understanding to God and trust that he gets it (John 20:29).
There's an old song by Laura Rivers called That's Alright, and the refrain is "since my soul got a seat up in the kingdom, that's alright". The verses list struggle and strife but all conclude with that line of certain hope for the kingdom. It's a simple song and I reckon that's what I find so encouraging and reassuring. The long and short of it is that your seat in heaven is assured whether we're loving life or in a global pandemic, and whether we understand the God who saved us or not.
Famously, Jesus promises ample room in his Father's house, and that he's prepared a place for you! Very cool. Thomas asks him how we can know the way when we don't even know where He's going, to which Jesus replies with the zinger of John 14:6-7, declaring simply that He is the way to the Father. We don't have to understand, just trust. These passages are plain and simple. We can get caught up in the semantics of faith but in my eyes now is the time to remind ourselves of that mind-blowing truth. As a Christian the one thing I most take for granted is Jesus' sacrifice. It's not that I'm unaware of it or don't know what it means for me, but I'm just used to hearing it and, dare I say it, even desensitised to what it is. I think this is where I drop the John 3:16 bomb.
I'm no theologian. These have just been my thoughts as I write, and what I'm definitely not saying is that we shouldn't explore faith and study the whole Bible, but what I am saying is that there's comfort to be found in the essential simplicity at the core of our faith. God's got us though we don't deserve it, and He understands so we don't have to.
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