Tuesday, February 28, 2006
is god fake?
there was a picketer on sunday morning at imago dei community. he held a sign that said "god is fake" adorned with smiley faces.he called himself and atheievangelist and wanted to encourage people to doubt the existence of god and to doubt their faith.
my friend asked him if people had been nice to him and he replied, "yes! this is the nicest place i've picketed!"
i guess he usually pickets the mega-churches. the fundamentalist, evangelical places with thousands of people. he said they usually call him names and shout and argue.
yesterday people were engaging him in conversation, asking him about what his message was and letting him speak his mind.
inside the building that same morning, the pastor spoke about the validity of questioning and doubting and asking "why." he's been reading through romans and is currently talking about romans chapter 8.
a family came up and shared their story of how their oldest son died in iraq. how they are a wreck and question "why" every day. how one of the only things that carried them through is the knowledge that christ understands what it is like to suffer and that god understands what it is like to have a son die . . . and the hope of resurrection that christ followers cling to.
and rick said our questions may never be answered. we might scream at god, "why the hell did this happen to me?! am i supposed to learn something from this? because this is a really cruel way to teach me a lesson?" (does god really even work that way?)
and s/he may never answer.
the real question is, i suppose, is god enough? is s/he going to be enough for you in the end?
god never promised that being a christ follower would be easy. in fact, s/he promised it would be rough. promised persecution, hardship and trouble.
so why do people choose to follow and believe anyway?
and why do others lie (sometimes on tv!) and say, "if you follow christ, you will be blessed with a nice house and money, etc?"
is the hope in something we cannot see and faith in something that cannot be fully proven really enough?
is god fake?
say it don't spray it 11:18 AM
11 i heard that
