Exploring Faith

EXPLORING FAITH

In the 2020s in the UK, we have reached the point where it is obvious that many elements of our collective life are not working. Yet we are still prosperous compared to those experiencing the horror stories of war and natural disaster across the world. Whilst many find making ends meet tough, others have very comfortable lifestyles. It is still relatively easy to go for a walk in one of the many beautiful places in our country and escape the pressures of life.

Is ‘escape’ the keyword here? It would seem that a deep sense of personal peace and wholeness is increasingly elusive despite wealth and security for some. Media in all its forms offers a deluge of advice on how to achieve personal wellbeing. Yet we are told that there is a growing mental health crisis, especially among the young. Many are, in one way or another, trapped.

The Christian message, the good news, is both simple and profound. It can speak into our ordinary lives. There is a radical way through life and a different personal future. Many have found that Jesus Christ’s claim, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”, is wonderfully true despite all the ups and downs of life. The gifts of God’s Spirit: love, joy, peace and others are there to be received – let alone Jesus’s claims about eternal life.

Questions of meaning and purpose, death and life, are desperately important.

HOW TO FIND OUT MORE

ASK

Pray “God, if you are there, help me” – yes, try that and see what happens, but be genuine and don’t mess with God!
Try to find someone in your personal networks who is a Christian and talk to them.
Find a lively church but beware those that have lost their way.
In many secondary schools, colleges and universities, there are Christian Unions.
You can even use the Livetheflow contact page. I may be able to find a local contact for you.

READ

Pick up a bible and read a gospel: Matthew, Mark Luke or John. See what you discover.
Or simply go online https://www.biblegateway.com/ Type in, for example, ‘John 1’ in the top box and you will be able to start reading instantly.

RESEARCH, THINK & MEDITATE

There is an abundance of online material but some of it is not trustworthy. There are cults and all sorts of weird things out there!

I recommend a website that is specially developed and presented for students and therefore has a certain style which won’t suit everyone. It sets out to address many of the questions people ask when they start to think more seriously about life. https://www.bethinking.org/

Engage with the important questions of life
Explore what Christians believe and why
Compare Christianity to different religions and beliefs
Relate the Christian faith to all of life

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.

This quotation is taken from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, Chapter 29, verse13

THE LIVETHEFLOW ANALOGY

For some, ‘finding faith’ is akin to the experience of love at first sight. For others it is more like a journey. God [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] is the flow of life. His personal invitation is mind-blowing. It is both simple and profound. Life becomes being part of what God is doing, part of the flow. Jesus himself uses the analogy. “Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” [Jesus]

Livingtheflow can be an upside-down and inside-out process. It can involve vulnerability, risk-taking and surrender of control, but also a mix of adventure, blessing and difficulty: yet all set within an overall peace that transcends events. God’s world is one of reversals: the first will be last; self-denial can lead to self-fulfilment; weakness can be strength; letting go can lead to possessing more fully.

And so it is that following a river can illustrate life. Just a few pictures of the River Wye illustrate the vast variety of experience life can bring:

The source of the Wye, Plynlimon

Rapids on the Wye at Penddol

The Wye, calm and idyllic

In many ways, it comes down to how much we really want to Livetheflow: how much we seek to relate to the Creator. Often, we lose out by clinging to our comfort zones and familiar places. Sometimes we embrace the false security of dead backwaters rather than move on to new things.

I share with many an innate tendency to take my life and put it in my well-developed comfortable boxes. ‘My Church’ then becomes my club that suits my culture and my style and gives me space to express myself. Then faith becomes a static religious consumer product: the dynamic, flowing faith is lost in ‘religion’.

Jesus himself had major problems with the ‘religious’ people of his day. They were the ones who could not take his attractive radicalism. It exposed their hypocrisy and their precious preoccupations with rules, status and doctrinal positions rather than the processes of living out and expressing their faith.

“Religion” can block the flow. After walking the Wye, we explored the Thames. Although one of our greatest rivers, it is heavily controlled. There are 45 locks on the Thames. Except when it is magnificent in flood, one could controversially and unkindly say that The Thames is little more than a glorified canal! But these two rivers provoke the meditation: how does my life flow?