Other Voices: 26 July 2001
I am not alone.
Peter Furler (City on a Hill): "Gradually, however, this simple but beautiful view of the world—which many are blessed to carry from the cradle to the grave—grew dim for me in my teenage years. I found myself beginning to question the origins of this faith. Did I just believe because I was the son of preachers? Or was it because of countless Sunday school lessons, prayer meetings, and Bible studies? Had I been brainwashed? And these moral standards that I felt pressing in on me daily, did they come from a great Divine Intelligence, or just my parents?"
Philip Yancey: "I must admit that Jesus has revised in flesh many of my harsh and unpalatable notions about God. Why am I a Christian? I sometimes ask myself, and to be perfectly honest the reasons reduce to two:
1. The Lack of Good Alternatives.
2. Jesus."
Tom Howard: "My years at University were marked by a systematic breakdown of what I thought to be my faith. Waht was actually going on, though, was that God, in His mercy, was stripping me of any vestige of religious pretense. My tendency to use my piety as some kind of social currency, buying acceptance and praise for my performance, had no comers in that godless environment. I was in full drift mode and my rudder was somewhere far away, splintering against the rocks."
Phil Madeira: "I encountered a conformity to a regulated status quo that bothered me, an orderly little box which contained a neat and tidy concept of God and what it meant to be a good Christian. It felt as if God's cookie cutter had been set on automatic and had gone awry, producing several hundred bland sugar cookies. This is what I rebelled against. I didn't see myself as rebelling against the Lord, although in this period, I certainly extended the boundaries of grace, and most certainly sinned. But in truth, God has no cookie cutter."
Church of Rhythm, 'Where is God':
Where is God in all of this
Where is my faith in all of this
Where are the answers to help me live through this
Maybe I'm a doubting Thomas
Maybe I've a skeptic's heart
If I can't believe that everything can be Jesus-talked away
I know God is real
And I need Him more than I need any slogan
God be real to me and heal this darkness in my heart
<--sooner · later-->
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