A friend of mine was a university chaplain in the Waikato, central North Island of New Zealand. Now she and her husband serve with a fellowship in China. As a leader, influencer, coach and pastor to others, she was wise to stop and think of her own paradigm and perspective, and to put words around her faith. Integrity requires us to stop and think, to re-examine and choose well, even as we embrace change and transition, loss and progress.
Jemma writes,
I’m not a Christian because I’ve been convinced by a good rational argument
of the existence of God.I’m not a Christian because it’s the culture of my family or my country and I
haven’t found any good reason not to be one anymore.I’m not a Christian because Jesus Christ is good news for the poor, release
for the captive, recovery of sight for the blind and liberty for those who are
oppressed. I’m glad about that, and passionate about living into it ever more
fully. But it’s not the reason.I’m a Christian because I need God. And I know that makes some people think
that I’m weak-minded, or lacking in courage, or childlike and foolish. I think
it’s about being human. And being human, I need grace and mercy and strength and love and forgiveness and hope. And that’s what I find in the Gospel.Something I read recently made me think about this: a blog-post by Bishop Kelvin who writes:
I have so much now in the way of intellectual and social and material capital that I can get on pretty well under my own steam. Yet the whole deal about faith is that you can’t, not ever, not in any way learn it unless you DO it, and doing it requires being in a situation where you have no resources but one, and that is the willingness to trust. I guess that is why Jesus said the thing about rich people and camels and eyes of needles. And I know that the very survival of our diocese and perhaps even of our denomination depends exactly on us rediscovering a whole renewed level of trust in and dependence on the Living God. I.e., faith.
I have to say that moving to Beijing is certainly inviting a whole new level
of trust in and dependence on God. I’m having plenty of opportunity to know my
need.
Jemma blogs at http://exilicchaplain.wordpress.com/
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