It’s easy to engage in objective banter. (think arguments)
In politics, it’s right versus left, taxes, etc. In culture, it’s the the role of technology and media and the office of influence pushing into race, morality, freedom, and identity. I believe this or that.
Sports, movies, books, television, podcasts, money, blogs…. like I said, objective banter is fun.
In “religion”, topics such as the relationship between the first chapter and the second chapter of Genesis are interesting to chat about with coffee and snacks. The oft-conversed issue relating the sovereignty of God to the free will of humanity and the nuance of accommodation mixed with love can provide a few hours of interest. Denominations, celebrity speakers, christian music, who’s saved and who’s not… what’s not to enjoy?
But I have a more subjective struggle to share. It has to do with the death of Jesus on the cross. I believe (a gift) with my whole heart that Jesus lived, died on a cross, was buried in a grave, rose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven. I totally believe it.
Here’s the part I have a hard time believing…
For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Jesus in God.
This thought is from the Bible in the letter to the Colossians in chapter 3. It’s a statement to me…as one who believes in Jesus. If you, the reader, believe in Jesus, do you, the reader, believe this? Not believe that Jesus died, but that you, the reader, have died.
I can argue all day that I believe in the death of Jesus and what it means. But I struggle to recognize myself as being dead to this life…well, because I’m alive. Tension.
You see, it’s easier for me to believe that Jesus died than it is for me to believe that I died.
These subjective thoughts and conversations are honestly, for me,
harder to find.
Fictive Whispers 