Growth

Prove It

As Christians, we are often told of the importance of sharing our faith with others. Although this possibility conjures up all sorts of anxiety and trepidation, I don’t think that the most difficult audiences are those who are unfamiliar with faith. Generally speaking, they may be more willing to hear about the trust we have in God because human beings tend to be curious by nature. I think the more difficult audience are those who know Christ’s teachings but choose not to follow them. The disciples who abandoned Jesus after their disillusionment (John 6:66) were probably more reluctant to believe in a resurrected Savior than were the Gentiles whom Peter and Paul set out to teach. When we are familiar something we tend to disregard anything that conflicts with our already confirmed perceptions. We let our bias dictate our input and so willfully or not, we are reticent to change our point of view.

The reason that discussing Christianity with a former professing adherent is difficult is because their argument against faith often takes faith out of the equation. Knowing the Scriptural account, they know that many things can not be proved; believing their validity requires faith. Yet often times they use the inability to scientifically demonstrate certain tenets of the Christian faith as a reason to refuse to follow Christ and we often get caught in circular arguments where in order to win them to the kingdom we try to prove what can only be attested to by faith. Faith, after all, is the evidence of things hoped for. If they have shun all hope, then the evidence will remain hidden.

A.W. Tozer put it this way, “The unbelieving mind would not be convinced by any proof,
and the worshiping heart needs none.” May all our hearts be filled with worship.

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Growth

No Subject Line

One of my silly pet peeves is receiving e-mails that have no subject line. (If you happen to be someone who has sent me one of those e-mails than I apologize for publicly, yet annonymously railing against you. If you are someone who thinks it would now be funny to send me a bunch of e-mails without a subject line, please refrain. 🙂 ) I blame a former boss for this annoyance – he also asked that e-mails be sent with a short, yet informative subject line. In reality, though, this blame is misplaced. The truth is that I’ve grown to depend on those (hopefully few) words to tell me what is contained inside. Those words help me prioritize, sort, and recall. I need them. Without them, my whole system of preference and organization crumbles. With them, I can manage expectations, create shortcuts and generally anticipate events. They give me a preview and create a passageway for avoidance. They are, in short, a relied upon convenience.

In a lot of ways, I think it would be nice if life came with subject lines. Just imagine. I think they would read something like this:

– A Good Day
– Temper Lost
– Sorrow to Avoid
– Disappointment in Friends
– Promises Ahead
– Next Steps

Think how easy life would be to handle if we knew what each day contained. If we could anticipate the story before experiencing it. We could organize, prioritize, sort and recall. We could know the content before knowing the context.

The thing about e-mail subject lines is that they create the wrong impression. Sometimes we don’t read what the e-mail contains because we think we already know what’s inside. Or maybe we don’t read the whole e-mail, once our initial hunch is seemingly verified. We ignore because we’re ignorant of what’s important. We respond based on perception. We act before understanding.

We’d probably do the same if every day came with its own subject line. We’d probably avoid the days like “Disappointment in Friends” assuming it meant that we would be disappointed, not that there was something we could do to prevent another’s discouragement. We’d focus on the e-mails that said “A Good Day” not realizing that its often in the bad days that we learn the most. We wouldn’t be burden by life’s unexpectancies, but we wouldn’t be blessed by life’s surprises. In trying to manage life, we’d quelch it.

I still prefer e-mails with subject lines. But I’m glad that life comes without.

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