If I don’t sleep well, I keep my Kindle handy and listen to some music on Radio 3 or something amusing on Radio 4 extra.This usually gets me back to sleep but I have missed the end of many plays.
The broadband isn’t that good here and it kept cutting out this morning. I signed in and looked at an email from a Christian radio station. I thought I had unsubscribed from these because it’s usually a bit of news where they can tack on the end “and he/she was a Christian”, much the same as saying “he/she was a Giraffe” or similar. Not much relevance.
This morning the headline screeched…
“Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby ‘doubted’ God after Paris attacks.”
Reading through the narrative that followed, I was wondering if this comment had been taken out of context as this didn’t actually seem what he had said. If he did, was it a responsible piece of reporting?
We are all subject to doubt at times, we believe in someone we cannot see, we believe in a book full of things that happened a long time ago. But when Jesus was resurrected He didn’t leave us alone , we have the third part of our triune God with each of us, the Holy Spirit, and He inspires the Scriptures to us and reminds us of what God has done for us.
The Psalms are full of people with doubts, who cry out, asking God to help them, has he left them? , enemies are closing in, HELP! But in each case they remember that He is there, and they wait .
When life kicks us in the head, we do yell those things, we do have moments of doubt. We want to be taken out of those circumstances, we want the nasty things to be taken away. Do we ever ask what can I learn from this ? Will it make me stronger? Can I help someone else who is suffering through this?
Maybe Justin Welby did doubt, but Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our strength. To love our neighbours as ourselves. These two simple commandments were given so that we could live in a peace and care for one another. He wasn’t speaking to Christians at the time, He was talking to Teachers of the Law, this was/ is for everyone.
If we choose to ignore what God has told us, a way in which we can live that will help us. How can we then blame Him for the atrocities that man inflicts upon man.
If we drive on the right hand -side of the road in Britain we will cause an accident and maybe someone will die. Can we then say “Where was God?”. As human beings we have to take responsibility for our actions.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God….. ” James 1: 2-5
theministersmrs 