There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter. Which luckily I am. The Mad Hatter Alice in Wonderland
There are roughly 7.8 billion people alive on earth today. Of those, about 2.4 billion (30.8%) call themselves “Christian.” 5.4 billion don’t.
I count myself among the two billion. I believe the Bible – in its entirety – is the inspired Word of God. I believe that Jesus Christ lived 2,000 years ago, that he was a carpenter, that he was a descendent of Jewish kings, and that he was the actual son of a real God. I even believe the part about the virgin birth. I believe Jesus was the one true God in a man’s body.
I believe Jesus came to earth and undercut the established religion of the day, and they crucified him for it. I believe the man, Jesus of Nazareth, really died, but since he was also God in a man's body, I believe the man, Jesus, came back to life three days later. And I believe that this singular event is the focal point of all of human history.
And then I believe Jesus went to heaven. And although no one has actually seen the man since, I believe the Spirit of God is still alive today. I believe that while God lived with people on earth two thousand years ago, he lives inside people today. In fact, he’s inside me right now. I talk to him every day and he listens to me! Why? Because the God of the Universe and I are close friends!
Why would anyone think I am mad?
Yet people do. Some of the nicest, smartest, sanest people – lots of them, actually – look at me and see a madman. Or in the very least, if they like me, they see a stupid man.
“But just look around you,” I say. “There MUST be a God!” And they look around. And they find lots of other, saner ways to explain things; ways that would make sense if they were true.
Some see a God and some don’t. Some see lots of gods, and others see none at all. But one thing I have noticed is this: whatever it is that people see when they look around, 5.4 billion people don’t see what I see.
Don’t get me wrong – there are still the 2.4 billion who do see things the way I do – that there is one, triune God – the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And over time we’ve learned that it works best for us to mostly stick together, to mostly talk about such things amongst ourselves and not too much to strangers. And for heaven’s sake, don’t ask too many hard questions! Hard questions like, “if the God we believe in is so obvious, then why is it most of the really smart people don't believe us?”
That’s one of the nice things about our churches, actually; they’re safe. And easy. By "easy," I mean easy for Christians to have tidy answers to hard questions without really trying that hard. Our tidy answer to “Why don’t most people see God the way we do?” is, “Oh, they do see it, honey, but they don’t want to. And until they do, they will always have a God-shaped hole in their heart and an emptiness that only Jesus can fill.”
Safe. Easy. Tidy.
Unsatisfying.
If it’s true that there are 2.4 billion Christians and 5.4 billion people with a god-shaped hole in their heart, then statistically that means that the Creator of the universe is batting about .308 on his grand plan to save mankind from Hell. And that’s on the high side. I don’t know about you, but to me, that seems a little low for a God.
But that’s why we don't think or talk about such things. It wrecks our tidy answers.
I am old enough to have had the chance to sneak into the circus freak show as a child and see the monkey boy and the girl who could light a bulb in her mouth and the man who could pound a nail into his nose. Did they try to convince me to be like them? No. They simply put themselves on display and I wondered how that worked.
Likewise, I am not interested in trying to convince you to believe me. I am all too happy to simply put myself on display so you can wonder how that works.
Am I madman? Perhaps I am. Am I a stupid man? Perhaps I am.
Perhaps not.
Enjoy the show.
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