07/27/2013
My Way of Believing
I am a believer in Jesus Christ but find it increasingly difficult to feel at home with fellow believers. Actually, I feel disarmingly at home with many “unbelieving” friends, or friends whom have distanced themselves from church once argued or cajoled into belief. I'm definitely not a fundamentalist literalist; far too rationalistic (though I am rational, I think?). Nor a Pentecostal charismatic, though I think I spoke in tongues once (or did I really want too and convinced myself I did)? Yet both rationalistic literalism and the emotive of Pentecostal Christianity gains numbers in Latin America. I have deepest of friends in both camps and if they truly know and love me, its because we're family and speak a common language of mutual love despite our different ways of experiencing the Holy (John 8: 43-45).
Oh, and if any did check out the John 8: 43-45 verse, it was Jesus tossing theology with those convinced they knew and believed in his Father. In Jesus thinking, “if you and I shared the same dad, then why don't we share a common lingo, felt experience, or even resemble one another?” I mean, I may not see or hear from my brother's in months or years, but when together, we share a common language, nuances, accents, stories, and even resemble each other. You can't get away from being “revealed” we're brother's and share a common dad. Jesus instead said, ”you guys don't act, resemble, and think like me or my dad, rather, you guys act more like the other dude, the bad daddy.” So, “whose your daddy?” I suppose, what constitutes being a believer, a family member, a brother to Jesus and son of the same dad is less about “thinking alike” and more about “being in a relationship of love that connects us immediately to one another through our shared sense of faith, even occasional doubts, and even when we “run away from home.” I suppose we're all prodigals from time to time, but still part of the family.
So, whether you're a rational literalist or an emotive Pentecostal, if in the end we can have coffee, tea, pray, spare $ 5 bucks and drive me to the airport at 5 Am, we can sing “Kumbaya My Lord.”
I find my way of believing in an ancient form of Christianity embodied in what is known as the “desert tradition.” My love of solitude, silence, and symbols is where I'm most at home. I'll speak more of this further along.
What's yours? How do you experience the Holy? What's your way of believing? Why did you leave? How has your believing changed?
