How Narrow and Rigid is Your Faith?
I happened to be browsing through Gim Han’s blog today and came across an entry which had the same title.
How rigid and narrow is your faith? When Annette posted this question to us during last week's bible, she immediately grabbed my attention. She went on to say that many Christians try to provide a lot of easy answers to many of the world's problems, which is not necessary. How do you know if you have a rigid and narrow faith? Well, if you are one of those people who find it hard to accept some of your friends who smoke and drink booze in clubs every weekend, or have a very condemning nature that complains about everything the CF fails to do, or even people who do not live like the way you do, then you have a very narrow and rigid faith. But instead, learn to have a faith that questions God and listen to Him, and that it's ok to struggle with what your beliefs are. When we struggle with things, we tend to listen to God better. True, some might drift further apart, but God, being God, would rather have us struggle and to learn rather than be complacent in our own comfort zone.
Another interesting note, drawing from her long experience as a full time worker at FES mentoring and guiding university students, she noticed that the people who are surviving well out there in the real working world, are usually the ones who questioned and struggled a lot about their faith. Pastor Kevin Loo of CHC too, echoed the same opinion sometime before. Those who were very passionate about God in their younger days do not necessarily finish the race better than the less passionate ones.
I tend to agree with Gim Han in a lot of matters. I find that many Christians today are very simplistic in their faith and thinking. Many of us just listen to whatever our pastors tell us and whatever we read without questioning it and finding out the truth for ourselves. We have ideas and views about what God is like and what Christianity is about without making a conscious effort to make informed choices on what to believe. We simply believe without questioning what we believe and why we believe. Any sort of questioning is considered taboo.
A lot of Christians also like to put God in a box. We have preconceived ideas on how God would and should act in certain situations. We also read God’s intentions into whatever happens around us when we don’t really know for sure. For example, many Christians saw the recent tsunami as God’s punishment on the ‘wicked’. But do we know for sure?
Are we too narrow, too rigid or too simplistic in our faith? Do we question what we believe? Do we question why we believe? Do we base our views on Christianity just by what our leaders say and think? Do we do our own research and thinking before coming to conclusions on certain matters? Can we accept that there will be people who will have views that will defer from our own? Do we force everyone to have the same views as us? Do we place God in a box? Do we limit God with our own rules and thinking?
How rigid and narrow is your faith? When Annette posted this question to us during last week's bible, she immediately grabbed my attention. She went on to say that many Christians try to provide a lot of easy answers to many of the world's problems, which is not necessary. How do you know if you have a rigid and narrow faith? Well, if you are one of those people who find it hard to accept some of your friends who smoke and drink booze in clubs every weekend, or have a very condemning nature that complains about everything the CF fails to do, or even people who do not live like the way you do, then you have a very narrow and rigid faith. But instead, learn to have a faith that questions God and listen to Him, and that it's ok to struggle with what your beliefs are. When we struggle with things, we tend to listen to God better. True, some might drift further apart, but God, being God, would rather have us struggle and to learn rather than be complacent in our own comfort zone.
Another interesting note, drawing from her long experience as a full time worker at FES mentoring and guiding university students, she noticed that the people who are surviving well out there in the real working world, are usually the ones who questioned and struggled a lot about their faith. Pastor Kevin Loo of CHC too, echoed the same opinion sometime before. Those who were very passionate about God in their younger days do not necessarily finish the race better than the less passionate ones.
I tend to agree with Gim Han in a lot of matters. I find that many Christians today are very simplistic in their faith and thinking. Many of us just listen to whatever our pastors tell us and whatever we read without questioning it and finding out the truth for ourselves. We have ideas and views about what God is like and what Christianity is about without making a conscious effort to make informed choices on what to believe. We simply believe without questioning what we believe and why we believe. Any sort of questioning is considered taboo.
A lot of Christians also like to put God in a box. We have preconceived ideas on how God would and should act in certain situations. We also read God’s intentions into whatever happens around us when we don’t really know for sure. For example, many Christians saw the recent tsunami as God’s punishment on the ‘wicked’. But do we know for sure?
Are we too narrow, too rigid or too simplistic in our faith? Do we question what we believe? Do we question why we believe? Do we base our views on Christianity just by what our leaders say and think? Do we do our own research and thinking before coming to conclusions on certain matters? Can we accept that there will be people who will have views that will defer from our own? Do we force everyone to have the same views as us? Do we place God in a box? Do we limit God with our own rules and thinking?
posted by sojourner @ Monday, January 31, 2005
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