faith

i've been really grappling with why people lose their faith in God. i have had some free time this week, and have been storming thru the blogosphere, and i've been struck by how many bloggers are writing about their struggles with faith in God.

and i wonder, how do you get to that point, where you just sort of give up on God, or on the idea of there being a God? it's not that i haven't encountered this before - i had one very good friend several years ago who completely lost his faith.

for some, i have seen, it's because of the way the church (or church people) has treated them or others. they see an abuse of authority, hypocrisy, manipulation, and all manner of horrible things, and they walk away from the church, and at the same time, walk away from God.

for others, it has been a long search & struggle to find God... to meet with him, to know his presence, to walk with him. and for some reason, God did not speak to them in the way they were expecting, or God didn't act in the way they were hoping, or they simply could find no connection to God whatsoever, and so they let go of the hope/belief that God is real - and even if they still believe in a God - they have lost the hope/belief that he will ever speak to them.

i can truly understand the hang-ups that people have with church people. i've seen a lot of crap in the church. i grew up in a ministry family, and then went into ministry myself, and unfortunately i can tell you that some people who call themselves Christians can be truly horrible. but i guess that i dealt with that by comparing their behavior to the character of God that i see in the revealed in the Bible, and calling their behavior wrong. i dissasociated myself with those kinds of Christians, with those Christian denominations, with those churches, and seek to spend my time with people whose lives reflect the character of God. there are many who call themselves Christians who do not follow Jesus. i guess i just don't think that that means that God isn't real.

the other question is more difficult for me. there doesn't seem to be a good answer. on one hand, we could say that for some reason, God chose not to speak/intervene in these peoples' lives. but why? when you read the Scriptures, you see a God who is involved in the lives of mankind - the whole story is about how he walked with people, how he sought out a people, how Jesus came & lived among people - the whole story is God reaching out to mankind. did that only happen during Bible times? did the way God interacts with mankind change? i know that some people believe that. am i just misinterpreting circumstances in my life, things that happen, as coming from God when they really just happen randomly? am i just attributing the good things in my life to God while saying the bad things come from some other source?

i don't really have hard & fast evidence to prove that God is real, or that he interacts in my life. but i do have a relationship with him. would it be possible to fabricate that? perhaps.

the truth is that i believe. i have had many points in my life where i have questioned the reality of God, doubted his existence, doubted his goodness. and at each point there has been a decision to continue to trust him. and i'll admit that some of it is on faith. some faith is always necessary.

there are many reasons that i believe. one of the simplest to explain is because of what living a life of faith & obedience is like. i think it works better than living my life without faith & obedience. when i do what reflects God's character, or do what the Bible says i should do - life is better - it's smoother, my relationships with other people are more fruitful, i'm more fulfilled and happier. and it makes sense why that would be so - if God is real, and he created us, he would know what we really need, what is good for us, and so it should work better.

so i guess one last thing that i want to say is that living a life of faith doesn't mean that you're without doubt. it doesn't mean that you have all the answers. it definitely doesn't mean that you're perfect. living with faith is living with hope. it's living relationally. living with faith is walking with courage. but i don't think it has to be a blind faith. there are reasons to believe.