From Theory to Practice

It’s quite amazing how so many people these days are really interested to talk about God, faith and meaning in life. I’ve experienced it in my own interactions with many friends who seem to be so curious about my beliefs as a Christian and just want to know more. I’ve also noticed how the issue of God and morality is continually raised in the office where I work. People are so open these days and want to talk about God, if only we would initiate the conversation sometimes.

I was quite skeptical about what Brian McLaren said in his book ‘Finding Faith’, that: people want to know not "Is Christianity true?" but rather, "Will buying into the Christian faith make me into a better person?" I mean, don’t people believe in something because they are convinced that it is true? But a conversation with a colleague (on yahoo messenger) today proved my skepticism wrong. There are people in the world today who are more concerned if Christianity will make them a better person more than if Christianity is true or not. So maybe here we have an example of a person with ‘postmodern’ perspectives. For him, he wouldn’t accept any religion because he felt that religion would only make him worse: I know that at it's core, religion promotes good things....but my concern is, has enough good been done to outweigh the atrocities of all religions? Could we not do good things without the guidance of religion, and hence be free of it's vices?

We had a good discussion together about it, like where our moral standards come from, how we determine what is good and what is bad if not from God’s standards. I even had the opportunity to share with him a different version of the gospel that I learnt from Brian McLaren’s ‘The Story We Find Ourselves In’, by telling God’s story instead of the reductionist 3 steps to salvation. This is the first time that I’ve actually shared about my faith this way. It’s been theory all this while, and I’ve never really tried it, so now it becomes a practice! And I have to say it works! I have to acknowledge that God was very much involved in the conversation as well, and I have to thank Him for giving us this good discussion! Coincidentally (or should I say, through God’s inexplicable knack for doing things like this), I have been reading McLaren’s ‘More Ready than You Realize’, and have been learning a lot about evangelism in the postmodern context. It just helped me so much in the conversation with this friend of mine.

He used to be an atheist, and still called himself one when we began the conversation. But I told him that his beliefs were more ‘agnostic’ rather than ‘atheistic’. He agreed: You're right! I've been using the old label for too long....you see, I started out not believing....then I became agnostic....but didn't realize it! My first thought was: Wow! That’s a good move in a positive direction! God was already working within him before we started! The conversation ended with him saying: hmmmmmm....I never thought of it that way.... Is this a general view amongst Christians? I think that's a good way to view life.... I guess in the end, it is the nature of humans that's the problem....they will always find some way to corrupt all that is good, whether religion or science, with their greed and pride....

I had to leave. But I really hope that we will be able to continue this conversation. I believe that God used the conversation to continue to work in him, and will continue to do so. Maybe he will be more open to religions now. For me, this is a good place to start moving from theory to practice.