I heard a story about a rancher, who had a huge ranch with thousands of head of cattle and a mansion of a house. This guy liked to through parties … big, raucous parties.
At some point during every party, he would gather everyone around his swimming pool and show them his shark. He had an 8-foot long shark that he kept in his pool as a pet. When he had the folks gathered around his huge pool, he would make a daring offer that if anyone would jump in the pool with the shark and swim from one side to the other, the rancher would give him his daughter’s hand in marriage or half his ranch.
At one particular party, the rancher had made his usual dare, and, after the initial surprise, the party started to go back to normal. Then, all of the sudden, the crowd heard the sound of someone splashing into the water and kicking like crazy.
Instantly, everyone rushed to the side of the pool to watch one man swim for his life. He was a pretty good swimmer, but you could see the shark fin rise in the water behind him. You could almost hear the Jaws music. The shark was gaining on him, and just as the man reached the other side and jumped out, you could hear the shark’s head hit the side of the pool.
The rancher came up to the man and said, “Well, I’ve got to hand it to you. I’ve made that offer for years, and no one has had the guts to do it. I’m a man of my word, though. What do you want my daughter or half my ranch?”
Out of breath, the soaking wet swimmer replied, “Neither. I want the name of the guy who pushed me in!”1
Some of you may be feeling like you got pushed into this. You may not be sure if you really want to be here. That’s OK. There aren’t any sharks in here. We aren’t going to eat you alive. As a matter of fact, we hope that this is a safe environment where you can discuss spiritual issues without fear of being criticized or condemned.
The Journey is an open and honest exploration of Christianity, including its faults and hard spots. We aren’t going to hide behind the church or doctrines or anything else. We believe the Christian faith makes sense, but we understand that there are significant barriers to faith. We affirm the doubting and searching process. It is healthy to investigate and not to believe something just because you’re told to believe it is true. We also believe that, when we look at what the Bible really says, the Christian faith gels with our experience and our natural sense of logic.
Therefore, we invite you to investigate with us. Let’s look closely at the Bible and God and Christianity and see if there is any truth in this. I invite you to embark on a spiritual journey with us to see if there is any truth in Christianity and if there really is a way that we may know God.
Play Clips from Wide Awake: (“Do you ever think about God?” – near the beginning, after running in the school, they stop to look up at a stain glassed window. “I’m going on a mission … to find God.” – they are sitting in the an unmoving car talking; the conversation starts out about girls; include that part. )
But, why? Why go on a mission to find God? Why should we engage in the spiritual Journey? Why should you give up two hours out of every Thursday for the next two months to talk about spiritual issues?
First of all, I think we would all agree that there is more to life than the material world. Music is more than notes on a page or sound waves vibrating through the air. Art is more than paint on a canvas. Poetry is more than letters in neat columns. People are more than flesh and bones.
There is a spiritual aspect to this world that is hard to deny. We live in environments that are not fully measurable by science or technology. We are spiritual beings in a spiritual world. It makes sense to get to know our world.
Second, we all have a deeper hunger. We all have a sense that there is something more. I love this part of The Matrix because it speaks to our deep curiosity.
You may not be able to put your finger on it, but you know there’s something out there. You have a nagging suspicion that there is deep truth and that you can find it.
A pastor from the Netherlands describes our situation well. “Humankind has been described by several scholars as ‘incurably religious.’ We are continually being drawn to something that is beyond ourselves, which is just another way of saying that God’s grace is at work in each of us and draws us ever closer to Him. It is only in God that we find our ultimate fulfillment.” He then quotes a prayer from Augustine, a Christian writer from the fourth century, “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in You.”2 We have a God-shaped hole in our heart that can only be filled by God himself.
Third, Jesus satisfies our deepest longings. “Freud said, ‘People are hungry for love.’ Jung said, ‘People are hungry for security.’ Adler said, ‘People are hungry for significance.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life’ (John 6:35). In other words, ‘If you want your hunger satisfied, come to me.’”3
In an article in In Touch magazine about how Matthew Perry recovered from drug and alcohol addiction, Matthew Perry observes, “It all starts from a spiritual connection with something that’s bigger than you. … But if you don’t have happiness inside, and you don’t think of others first, you’ll be lonely and miserable in a big house.”4
The truth that Matthew Perry discovered is that nice things can’t satisfy our deepest hungers. Jesus said that he came to this earth to give us “life in all its fullness,” (John 10:10), and only he can give us what we long for deep within our beings.
There is one last reason to explore Christianity. God offers us a foundation that cannot be shaken by the struggles of this life. The foundation God offers is himself.
Nothing else in this world is certain. Boyfriends and girlfriends break up. Good workers get laid off. Spouses have affairs. Towers collapse. Stock markets crash. We are unwise to put our ultimate trust in anything or anyone in this world because if that thing or person goes, we are foundationless. It’s kind of like the Road Runner cartoons when somebody is running along and then realizes that there’s no ground underneath him anymore.
But listen to what King David said about God thousands of years ago, “I wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me” (Psalm 62:5-7).
Being a Christian doesn’t make us immune to cancer or bullet proof, but entrusting our whole lives to God does something for us that no medicine or high tech vest can do. It gives us a foundation that is beyond material circumstances. It sets our roots in the Eternal. There is something very calming about knowing that whatever happens we are safe with God.
I had to loose the foundation I had built up for myself to learn this lesson. God taught me to put my trust in him alone. Since then, I have had a peace that whatever happens I will be OK because God is my foundation and refuge. If God is even half as good as the Bible says he is, this is something worth looking into.
Let’s stop for a minute and talk about doubts. We all have doubts, and doubts can be serious hurdles in our spiritual journey. They can even derail us at times.
There is a story in the Bible about a man named Jacob that is pertinent to a discussion about doubts. God had called Jacob to return to his homeland, but Jacob’s homeland was not safe for him the last time he was there, and Jacob is full of doubts. In the middle of the night, God comes to Jacob in the form of a man, and Jacob wrestles with him until dawn.
I have always wondered how a person could wrestle with God, but Jacob does. It seems to have been a real back and forth struggle. One time, God even cries out, “Let me go!” God could have killed him in an instant. Instead, he wrestled with him all night.
I think Jacob got the idea that this was God. It may have even been a battle of the wills. If so, here was the issue: Would Jacob trust God and step out into the unknown?
Eventually, God pops Jacob on the hip and gives him a limp. It’s like he’s reminding Jacob who is really in control. But then God gives Jacob a new name. From that time on, Jacob would be known as Israel, which means “one who struggles with God.” Jacob was the father of the twelve men who became the twelve tribes, and the whole nation would bear his new name, Israel. The people of Israel lived up to their name. The Bible gives countless stories of how God’s people have wrestled with him through the night.
We follow in Jacob’s footsteps too. We have doubts. We wrestle with God. I think it’s time for some audience participation. What are some of the doubts that you or people you know have? What stops people from being Christian? What makes people question their faith?
[How can God let bad things happen to good people?
How do I know God is there if I can’t see him or touch him or hear him?
Why are there so many hypocritical Christians? (By the way, this was the number one question asked our survey of people who don’t go to church.)
Do you really expect me to believe someone walked on water?
What will I have to give up to be a Christian?
If the Bible was written by men, how can it really teach me about God?
Religion is a crutch, “the opiate of the masses.”]
I have had my fair share of doubts. I grew up going to church, but after a while I began to think that Christianity was not real at all. That probably had a lot to do with seeing some serious double lives in those around me.
I remember sitting in church and thinking this was all fake. I thought, “These people are just fooling themselves. They’re working themselves up into an emotional frenzy. There is nothing real here. God isn’t real, or, if he is, he doesn’t care about us.”
Then, later, after I was a Christian, I found out that my friend’s parents, who had been upstanding members of their church, were getting a divorce because the man was beating his wife. I had such a hard time dealing with that. I had spent time in their home, eaten their food, shaken their hands. I cried and cried and asked how God could let this happen, how he could give a person that much freedom.
You know I’m comforted because the Bible is full of doubting people. Abraham, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Gideon, Peter, John the Baptist, Paul – they all had their doubts.
But the most famous of all is Doubting Thomas. Jesus was crucified, and the disciples were crushed. But then Jesus came back to life and appeared to a few different disciples on different occasions. Once he walked into a room where most of the apostles were meeting. Everyone was there except Thomas.
When the others told Thomas about it, he didn’t believe them. He had gotten hopes up before, and the let down was too painful to go through that again. He didn’t know what those other guys saw, but he said, “Look I’m not going to believe he’s back until I see him with my own eyes and touch him with my own hands, and I’m not going to believe it is really Jesus until I put my fingers in the nail holes on his wrists and my hand on the spear wound on his side.”
Not too long after that, the apostles were all together, including Thomas. They locked the door because things had been really bad lately. In walked Jesus right through the locked door, and said [deep gravely voice] “Wazzup?” (That’s a loose translation.) Then, he locks eyes with Thomas. People start to clear out of the way, kind of like a showdown in an Old West saloon.5 You can almost hear somebody say, “Get him Jesus!”
Jesus doesn’t jump Thomas’s case or zap him with lightning. He does something even more shocking. Jesus walked over to Thomas and gently said, “Touch me. I know you need to. It’s really me. Now, have faith!”
God is the same with us. He says, “Touch me. Come get a closer look.” People have doubts. The amazing thing is that God seems to be OK with that. God isn’t afraid our doubts. He willingly wrestles back and forth with people over our doubts. I think he kind of likes it. In this course, you will have the chance to wrestle with God. This is your opportunity to take a closer look and see if God is for real.
Let’s go back and review the benefits for you. What do you get out of this? First of all, there are some pretty good guarantees. No matter what else happens, you’ll get more good food. You’ll get to meet some nice people, and you’ll get to have some stimulating discussions about important issues.
Beyond those guarantees, there are some amazing possibilities. Participating in this course could help you become a more spiritual person whether or not you buy into the Christian perspective. The Journey could help you find answers to some of the questions you’ve been asking for a long time. Discussing spiritual issues and wrestling with the meaning of life could help you learn how to have a more satisfying and joyful life.
Finally, if God really blesses this course, you will encounter the living God in a life changing way! In Jeremiah 29:13 God says, “If you look for me in earnest [if you search for me with all your heart], you will find me when you seek me.” That is a promise we hope will be fulfilled for you over the next two months. It may not happen for everyone, but if you stick with us and keep seeking God, you will surely make progress toward that goal.
I think a quote from the Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book” may be helpful here. The chapter is titled, “We Agnostics,” and it is written by people who were atheist or agnostic and definitely unreligious, who out of their desperation to escape alcoholism, decided to give spirituality a try. “We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions.”
Then in reference to their former views the AA writers, have this to say, “Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.”6
That is all we are asking of you. We know there are some ugly trees in the Christian forest. All we ask is that you give Christianity and Jesus a fair hearing. That is what the Journey is all about.
Now I want to let you hear from someone who has really wrestled with God. Travis, come on up. Travis went on a two year journey of wrestling with God. I want you to hear what he has to say.
Interview with Travis Marlow.
2.12.04
1. I know that you had a long process of thinking about spiritual issues. What was your life like when you started that process?
Frustrating. I was tired of thinking about money and how to make more, all the time. I was tired of not knowing how to act in my marriage. I was tired of being a jerk to everybody. I was tired of trying to change myself and it lasting two days because it was a surface change. That being my life, the thing that actually started my quest to understand more about different religions was the fact that I wanted to throw a monkey wrench in other people's faith. I didn't care what they believed, I just wanted to show them why it was flawed, so they could be as lost as me. An example would be my good friend Jason Zann who at the time was a Catholic, though not practicing. He had a lot of little bits of canned wisdom that he would throw at me, so I would read the Bible to disprove him.
2. What were some of your biggest questions?
Why doesn't God just show himself/herself/itself so that we can all quit arguing about it(then I realized that he did). There can't be a God, because we came from monkeys and the Bible contradicts that. If there is a God, what religion best represents what that God is or does that religion exist yet? I also believed that people believed in God for a pyschological crutch, because they can't deal with the reality that they are nothing more than food for the critters when they're 6 feet under.
3. How did you "wrestle with God?" What was the process like for you?
I don't completely understand Jesus and why he would sacrifice so much for me, when I've done nothing for it. I don't know how you create the world by speaking it into existence. I continue to wrestle with God, I continue to have doubts about things. I don't think that I'm not a Christian because I have doubts, in fact, I think the opposite is true. My faith becomes strengthened because of my doubts, you see, everytime that I overcome one of my doubts my faith is that much more battle-hardened.
4. Where are you now?
Sitting next to you, silly sally. I'm on a Journey. I've have decided to put my faith in and God and believe, even though I don't have all the questions answered and may never have them all answered, I believe that the evidence, currently available, points to Christianity as the only true way to have a relationship with God in the way that God intended. I've experienced that myself, though you could ask me a million questions that I couldn't answer, I would still believe that it's true, because I've experienced it to be true.
5. What advice do you have for people about wrestling with God?
Do your best to maintain an open mind while going through this Journey, because we reason God out of our lives without checking all the facts. Ask questions that you have, because it's important for them to be answered if possible. I have discovered of myself and others that sometimes we hide behind intellectual objections to Christianity when the real problem is we don't want to give up our selfish desires. Just like I can technically describe how to ride a bicycle, you will never truly learn unless you just do it. That same logic applies to the teachings of Jesus, remember Christianity isn't true because it works, it works because it's true.
The Journey is not a dry course about lecture and ideas. It is an adventure in swimming in the reality of life, running it through our fingers. It is looking at the Christian perspective curiously as a child watches an ants move about on the sidewalk, mulling it over with our words, wrestling with its problems. This is your chance!
Some people think of Christianity as a cabin where we can huddle together to hide from wind and darkness and dangers. I am not one of those people. If we want to hide from life, we could all go home and watch sitcoms and dramas, about other people, people who don’t even exist.
Christianity and The Journey are about looking questions of life squarely in the face, feeling the wind, taking the risks of discussion, and trying to figure out how to live life like it is supposed to be lived.7 This is not an invitation to huddle in the cabin. This is an invitation to explore the real world. This is your chance!
“The average life span is 25,550 days. That’s how long you’ll live if you’re typical.” Doesn’t it make sense to take 9 or 10 of those days to explore the deep questions of life and to consider whether or not there is any truth in Christianity?8 This is your chance!
Play “I Hope You Dance” by LeAnne Rymes.
Journaling:
When you think of engaging on a spiritual journey, what do you feel?
What are your core spiritual questions?
1 I got this joke and the application from the pastor of Christ Episcopal Church in Overland Park, KS.
2 Edwin de Jong, (“Secularism: Is God Dead?” Holiness Today, October 2002), 27. Note: I edited the quote from Augustine to change the archaic English (from “Thee” to “You,” etc.).
3 Nicki Gumble, Questions of Life, (Colorado Springs: Cook, 1996), 28.
4 “What a Difference a Year Makes,” (In Touch, Jan. 13, 2003), 58.
5 This retelling is adapted from Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg, Becoming a Contagious Christian, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 165-166.
6 Alcoholics Anonymous, (New York, 1992), 50.
7 Eugene Peterson, forward in Church: Why Bother? by Philip Yancy, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998), 7-8.
8 Adapted from, Warren, Rick, The Purpose Driven Life, (Grand Rapids, MI: 2002), 9.
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