I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. NLT Phil 3:12
I recently had a conversation with someone. It was quite a conversation, one of those that draw things out of you that you didn’t know you had. We talked in depth about life, living and God. Somewhere along the way, I was drawn to something that I had I began to write about and thought I had finished. But as it turned out, the river runs deeper.
Lately I have been meditating on this thing of being a Christian and what it really means or (at least) should mean. I have been wondering why Jesus actually died, why God decided to give us his Holy Spirit. I have wondered what God sees in us, what his actual end game is. I know all this might sound cliche but there must come a moment where one must stop and reconsider who it is they are following.
In our generation, many things are relative. Many things are have also been desacralised. The divine has been replaced as the foundation and true source of knowledge and its place, we have science. We exist in a space where the desacralization of knowledge has led to the belief all that can be understood is science in terms of information, quantification, analysis and their subsequent technological implications. The questions of religion, God, eternal life and the nature of the soul are all outside the realm of scientific knowledge and thus are only matters of faith1. And for most, faith is that thing you believe but can’t really explain. If that’s true about faith then it is subconsciously true about the faith giver. We are not expected to know how he works. Therefore what we believe (but cannot explain) is always at war with the knowledge and experiences (that have explanations) and we know who wins.
Putting aside all this philosophy stuff and regardless at what state or age one finds oneself, one needs to ask, what does it really mean to be a Christian?
Is it hope for a better life after this one? Is it an end to struggles? Is it about being good, reading our Bibles, organising community outreaches, prayers, gatherings, worship experiences, humanitarian arms etc?
For a while, I have been pondering on this subject called God. Not the God that I think I know nor the God that came by ship courtesy of our colonizers. But the God of heaven. Jesus said, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Why did he have to make that statement? Why use “know” and not “believe”? Why did he explicitly tie eternal life to “knowing” as opposed to “believing” God?
I am still pondering on this subject called God. John said, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched…very profound words. That which was from the beginning ….it preceded everything (science, knowledge, Satan, struggles etc you name it). God existed before all things- selah. That means that it is imperative that he is known (and believed) in this manner and not through the lenses of our times or struggles. This calls us to see him as he is in the beginning as opposed to how our times have framed him.
I once asked, how do spirits worship. It was derived from God is Spirit and that the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit. He’s not lavitating over my church, he is Spirit! He is not in the spirit….he is Spirit! And the scripture goes forth to say, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. It’s one thing to quote that verse but it became another matter altogether when I started to question what it really meant to worship God in spirit and in truth. All my life, worship was song, music etc, from me to God. “Spirit” was when the music became softer and the songs slowed down and the lead called us to cry out to God. That was it, that moment right there was worship in spirit. But is it? How do spirits commune?
Yeah, today we have questions, many questions….. All because some guy is pondering what it means to be a Christian. I believe that it’s impossible for us to grasp the true meaning of what this God or Christianity thing is if we do not go back and look into the beginnings. Before all this drama was, who is God?
There is a passage in John 8.31-59. Jesus is involved in a back and forth with some sons of ‘Abraham’. From the looks of it, it was boiling conversation (and it finally tipped). In verse 58, he says, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM! I recognise that there are many explanations to the I AM part. So allow me add one there. Grammatically speaking, “I was” would have made more sense. But he chose I AM. Here were sworn sons of Abraham willing to stone someone Abraham saw and rejoiced. And none of them paused to even consider what Jesus was saying. But my point is, I bet he was telling them,”if you do not know me, the I AM, who is from the beginning, even the Abraham you claim to know, you don’t know. And the proof of this is that you’re willing to stone me yet Abraham, your so-called father, rejoiced at seeing me.” Selah!
Tbc.
1- Saltzman, Judy D. (2000). The Concept of Spiritual Knowledge in the Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr
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