My book club at church is currently reading Still notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis, by Lauren f. Winner. I was struck by a quote from that book that said, "Or like the writer of Ecclesiastes, instead of asking where the god you thought you were lookng for had gone, ask what god is like now."(Winner p. 114)
Anyone who has ever been involved in a faith community probably has had to ask that question from time to time. If you are no longer in a faith community that very question may be what caused you to leave, either the God you remembered was gone from the preaching and teaching of that place, or perhaps was still present but you no longer longed for that God.
If you are still in a faith community the question has a slightly different meaning, at least it does for me. I find myself looking at my own journey in what I longed for or needed and therefore believed about God as true today as it was 46 years ago? My hunch is no it is not, that as I have in other aspects of my life, things have changed yet stayed the same. At least the way I view and experience God has evolved over time.
And perhaps the question is different if you are new to faith or have returned after an extended absence. What was the longing in your heart? Was it something nostalgic or was it something very new?
Some claim that God never changes, we change. The Bible seems to say something different. God does change and so do we. Sometimes we change in response to God, sometimes our changes are on parallel tracks.
Blessings,
Ed
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
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